Last month Tucker Carlson claimed that his identity was "unmasked" after he attempted to arrange an interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Tucker claimed that the National Security Agency targeted some of his emails, and on Tuesday, the NSA's inspector general said his office would look into his claim.
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Tucker's initial claim came on June 28 and said that the NSA was looking for something that could result in Fox taking their prime-time host off the air, the New York Post reported.
A statement from watchdog Robert Storch said his office was reviewing "recent allegations that the NSA improperly targeted the communications of a member of the U.S. news media."
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The claim caused the NSA to publicly deny the claim, which is rare from the agency, saying that Carlson "has never been an intelligence target."
When it was reported that Carlson was in contact with the "US-based Kremlin Intermediaries" to set up the sit-down, Carlson said that he had only informed his show's executive producer via emails he had sent.
"I wasn't embarrassed about trying to interview Putin," Carlson said at the time. "He's obviously newsworthy. I'm an American citizen, I can interview anyone I want, and I plan to. But still, in this case, I decided to keep it quiet. I figured that any kind of publicity would rattle the Russians and make the interview less likely to happen. But the Biden administration found out anyway by reading my emails."
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Carlson then claimed that a "whistleblower" told him the NSA planned to leak his emails to media outlets to try and "paint [him] as a disloyal American, a Russian operative (I've been called that before), a stooge of the Kremlin, a traitor doing the bidding of a foreign adversary."
However, when Axios' original report came out, Carlson confirmed on his show that night that he was attempting to interview Putin.
Late last month, a cybersecurity report from The Record found that an internal NSA investigation found Carlson's name was revealed, or "unmasked," and it was mentioned that "communications between two parties" were under surveillance.
The report also noted that the NSA notified the House and Senate intelligence committees of the internal probe findings.
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Storch and his office will now examine the "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."
A representative from Fox News said that they are "gratified to learn the NSA's egregious surveillance of Tucker Carlson will now be independently investigated."
"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," the spokesperson added.