New House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has authorized a congressional investigation into the possible weaponization of the FBI, the CIA and the Department of Justice. In addition to investigating the FBI’s suppression or unlawful leaking of evidence and the response to the Jan. 6 protest at the Capitol, Fox News host Tucker Carlson is calling for an investigation into government infringements of personal privacy.
In 2021, Fox News host Tucker Carlson announced the National Security Agency (NSA) hacked his secure (Signal) text message account. At the time, left-leaning legacy media outlets painted Tucker as an unbalanced conspiracy theorist.
A month later, Axios reported that Carlson’s assertions were factual. The NSA had monitored Carlson’s text messages, and a red flag was raised when Tucker texted “Kremlin intermediaries” regarding a possible trip to Russia to interview President Vladimir Putin.
Last week, during an interview on the “Full Send Podcast, Carlson again put the government breach of privacy issue in the spotlight.
Tucker elaborated on his plan to travel to Russia in the summer of 2021: “I’ve been all over the world — I feel like I’ve been everywhere except Russia,” he said. “And Russia is a combatant in a war that’s changing the world. I should go see it … and I was planning on it, and I got stopped by the U.S. government from doing it.”
Carlson asserted: “The NSA broke into my [encrypted] Signal account, which I didn’t know they could do.”
The veteran journalist complained about the breach of privacy: “I don’t have a secret life. I’m not hiding anything — but I was definitely hiding my plan to go interview Putin just because it’s an interview.”
Carlson recalled that he received “a call from somebody in Washington who [you] would know — just trust me … this person said, ‘[Are you] going to come to Washington anytime soon?'”
A few days later, the Fox News host met his contact and was shocked to be asked if he was planning a trip to see Putin.
“And I was like, ‘how would you know that?’ I hadn’t told anybody — I mean, anybody. Not my brother, not my wife, nobody. Because, you know, it’s one of a million things you’re working on, but that was one of them.”
Carlson asked the source how he knew of his possible trip to Russia. The source replied: “Because NSA pulled your text with this other person you were texting.”
Carlson reported he was left feeling shocked and intimidated.
Tucker Carlson admits the NSA hacked into his Signal messages after he was planning a trip to Russia to interview Vladimir Putin.
Tucker, please don’t let the NSA intimidate you — we desperately need this interview! pic.twitter.com/siXVETMWGm
— Jackson Hinkle 🇺🇸 (@jacksonhinklle) March 10, 2023
“I’m embarrassed to admit, but I was completely freaked out by it,” Carlson recalled.
Upset, Carlson reported the matter to a U.S. senator, who reportedly contacted the head of the NSA and demanded an investigation into the matter. Though Carlson did not name the senator, the Western Journal noted that Sen. Rand Paul sent a letter to the NSA in the summer of 2021.
Rand asked for an investigation and warned that journalists are “to be afforded the freedom of the press protections guaranteed by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.”
Carlson disclosed that the NSA admitted to spying on him but claimed they had “good reason,” which they did not disclose.
Tucker also noted that the NSA criticized his making the matter public. While publicly stating that his allegations were “untrue,” the NSA did not publicly deny their office hacked into his account and spied on his text messages.
A cybersecurity report in The Record has confirmed Carlson’s story. Their report reads:
“The nation’s top electronic spy agency found that Carlson was mentioned in communications between third parties, and his name was subsequently revealed through ‘unmasking,’ a process in which relevant government officials can request the identities of American citizens in intelligence reports to be divulged provided there is an official reason, such as helping them make sense of the intelligence documents they are reviewing.”
Carlson noted he made the matter public because law-abiding citizens have a right to privacy. He warned, “By the way, if you have no privacy, you have no freedom.”
