The Office of the Inspector General for the National Security Agency announced Tuesday an investigation has been launched after Fox News anchor and journalist Tucker Carlson was unmasked.
"The National Security Agency Office of the Inspector General (OIG) announced that it is conducting a review related to recent allegations that the NSA improperly targeted the communications of a member of the U.S. news media. The OIG is examining NSA’s compliance with applicable legal authorities and Agency policies and procedures regarding collection, analysis, reporting, and dissemination activities, including unmasking procedures, and whether any such actions were based upon improper considerations. If circumstances warrant, the OIG will consider other issues that may arise during the review," the office released in a statement.
When confronted with allegations of spying in June, the NSA said Carlson was never a target of any investigation, but did not deny reviewing his communications.
"On June 28, 2021, Tucker Carlson alleged that the National Security Agency has been 'monitoring our electronic communications and is planning to leak them in an attempt to take this show off the air.' This allegation is untrue. Tucker Carlson has never been an intelligence target of the Agency and the NSA never had any plans to take his program off the air," the NSA released in a statement. "NSA has a foreign intelligence mission. We target foreign powers to generate insights on foreign actives that could hard the United States. With limited exceptions (e.g. an emergency), NSA may not target a US citizen without a court order that explicitly authorizes the targeting."
Two weeks ago, we learned Carlson was in fact unmasked.
The question now is, by who?
It’s illegal to leak an unmasked name.
— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) August 10, 2021
Why is Avril Haines so quiet? She could clear this up today and call for full prosecution of the leaker. She knows who unmasked the name - she sees the list of requesters. https://t.co/ap3XJvaqi7
“We are gratified to learn the NSA’s egregious surveillance of Tucker Carlson will now be independently investigated," a Fox News spokesperson said about the investigation. "As we have said, for the NSA to unmask Tucker Carlson or any journalist attempting to secure a newsworthy interview is entirely unacceptable and raises serious questions about their activities as well as their original denial, which was wildly misleading."