Tucker Carlson alleged in a video statement on Saturday that the Central Intelligence Agency has been spying on him and is preparing a criminal referral against him for alleged violations of the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA).
Under the law, it is a crime to act on behalf of a foreign principal without proper registration.
Carlson has come under fire recently for his criticisms of Israel and the war in Iran, even prompting Trump to disavow him. Following the initial Operation Epic Fury strikes in Iran on February 28, Tucker responded, calling the war “absolutely disgusting and evil.”
Trump responded to Tucker, saying he “has lost his way” and is “not MAGA.”
Many of Tucker’s other critics on the right, including Fox News host Mark Levin, have attempted to claim that Tucker is paid by Qatar to broadcast his opinions on Middle East conflicts. Most notably, failed presidential candidate Ted Cruz has ramped up his attacks on Tucker, recently smearing him as an antisemite and “the single most dangerous demagogue in this country.”
Carlson said he was “talking to people in Iran before the war,” and the CIA read his text messages to prepare a criminal referral to the Department of Justice, but that he’s “not too worried about an actual criminal case.”
“One, I’m not an agent of a foreign power. Unlike a lot of people, commenting on US politics and global affairs, I have only one loyalty, and that’s the United States and have never acted against it. Its interests are the only interests I care about because I’m from here and I have a lot of kids, so that’s not a concern. I’ve also never taken money from anybody. Don’t need it, don’t want it, and that’s provable,” he said.
“And moreover, it’s my job to talk to everybody all the time and try and figure out what’s happening around the world. That’s literally what I do for a living. And I’m not going to stop doing that, nor should I, I don’t think. I’m also an American. I can talk to anybody. I have no secrets to divulge. So, legally, I think the case is ludicrous, and I doubt it will even become a case.”
He says, “there are some people who are mad at me for my views about Israel,” and they may be filing a criminal referral to justify a warrant or as part of a humiliation and intimidation campaign, the existence of which may be leaked to the media in the near future.
“None of this, in my judgment, as of right now, is a huge threat to me. So, I’m not making this video to complain about it or whine or ask you to send me money because I’m under attack. I’m saying it because it’s true, and you should know what your own government is doing, and you should know what the stakes are, and you should know that a lot of what happens in this country that affects outcomes happens behind the scenes. Some of it is legal; some of it is not, including what I’m describing now, but it has an effect,” Tucker added, comparing the apparent investigation to the Russiagate scandal.
WATCH:
TRANSCRIPT:
Carlson: So the other day, I found out that the CIA is preparing some kind of criminal referral against me, a crime report to the Department of Justice on the basis of a supposed crime I committed. What’s that crime? Well, talking to people in Iran before the war. They read my texts. So, the crime under consideration, apparently, would be the Foreign Agent Act, or something like that, acting as an agent of a foreign power.
And I don’t expect this to go anywhere. I’m not too worried about an actual criminal case against me for a bunch of reasons. One, I’m not an agent of a foreign power. Unlike a lot of people, commenting on US politics and global affairs, I have only one loyalty, and that’s the United States and have never acted against it. Its interests are the only interests I care about because I’m from here and I have a lot of kids, so that’s not a concern. I’ve also never taken money from anybody. Don’t need it, don’t want it, and that’s provable.
And moreover, it’s my job to talk to everybody all the time and try and figure out what’s happening around the world. That’s literally what I do for a living. And I’m not going to stop doing that, nor should I, I don’t think. I’m also an American. I can talk to anybody. I have no secrets to divulge. So, legally, I think the case is ludicrous, and I doubt it will even become a case.
I’m bringing this up for a couple of reasons, though, and they’re pretty obvious. One is that countries tend to become more authoritarian in wartime. It’s just the nature of war. People are dying, the stakes are high, people’s emotions have risen to a very high point, to a crescendo, and so there’s much less tolerance for any kind of dissent in the homeland. The irony, of course, is the United States fights wars on behalf of freedom, but there’s always less of it here in our country during war. So, that’s a widely recognized phenomenon, and it’s likely to happen now too.
Another point to make that is worth knowing is that the USIC, the intelligence agencies, spy on Americans. You probably knew that, and it’s been revealed a lot, including by Julian Assange and Ed Snowden, both of whom were threatened with death for revealing it, but everyone knows. But it’s probably a little more widespread than most people understand, and it’s outrageous. There’s no justification for your government, which you own, you’re a shareholder in it, you pay for it, to be violating your privacy like this. But it happens all the time.
And in fact, one of the reasons that CIA, or people within CIA— just to be clear, it’s a huge, sprawling, disconnected agency. What it does in a specific case doesn’t represent what everybody in the building thinks. But there are some people who are mad at me for my views about Israel, and they have some latitude, and one of the reasons they pass on criminal complaints, in effect, to law enforcement is to justify warrants for spying on Americans.
So, that is an absolutely real thing, but the main reason they do it is to leak the existence of the investigation, such as it is, to the media and then humiliate and terrify the subjects of this op. And that’s, of course, happened to me repeatedly, many times, including in, famously, 2021, when I was still at Fox News and trying to set up an interview with Vladimir Putin, and the NSA, I heard from someone there, had grabbed my text messages with an American citizen and had leaked them to news outlets. Those texts were basically my attempts to set up an interview with a foreign head of state, and they leaked them to the New York Times in order to stop the interview, which they successfully did, by the way. And they admitted that they were spying on me.
This is not a fantasy. It actually happened. They did it again two years later in my second attempt to get a Putin interview. I managed to get it anyway, and they’ve done it since. And so, when you get a call from a reporter who knows the contents of your texts, it’s pretty clear something’s going on.
None of this, in my judgment, as of right now, is a huge threat to me. So, I’m not making this video to complain about it or whine or ask you to send me money because I’m under attack. I’m saying it because it’s true, and you should know what your own government is doing, and you should know what the stakes are, and you should know that a lot of what happens in this country that affects outcomes happens behind the scenes. Some of it is legal; some of it is not, including what I’m describing now, but it has an effect.
And the Intel agencies— again, not everyone in the Intel agencies because there are decent, hard working Americans who work in the Intel agencies that are Americans, just like there are decent, hard working Americans who work at the DMV. But there are also people with agendas and grudges and no sense of restraint, who are happy to misuse the power they have granted them by our elaborate secrecy laws to hurt fellow Americans for ideological reasons. That is entirely real. That’s the story of Russiagate, and it’s likely that things like that will begin to happen at greater scale now. So, you should just know that going forward. Thanks.ects outcomes happens behind the scenes. Some of it is legal; some of it is not, including what I’m describing now, but it has an effect.
This is a developing story.
The post JUST IN: Tucker Carlson Says CIA Has Been Reading His Texts and is Preparing a Criminal Referral Against Him for Alleged FARA Violation – “You Should Know What the Stakes Are” (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.