ByTZVI JOFFRE

The National Security Agency (NSA) denied on Tuesday claims by Fox News host Tucker Carlson that it was monitoring his show's electronic communications in an attempt to take the show off the air.

Carlson made the claim on his show, Tucker Carlson Tonight, on Monday, saying, "It's not just political protesters the government is spying on. Yesterday, we heard from a whistleblower within the US government who reached out to warn us that the NSA, the National Security Agency, is monitoring our electronic communications and is planning to leak them in an attempt to take this show off the air."

While Carlson, known for spreading conspiracy theories, admitted that he would usually be "skeptical" of such a "shocking claim," he said that the whistleblower knew information about a story Carlson was working on that he says could have only come from his texts and emails. "There's no other possible source for that information, period," said Carslon.

The Fox News host added that the NSA captured the information for "political reasons" and claimed that the Biden administration is "spying" on Carlson's show. Carlson said he filed a Freedom of Information Act request asking for the information gathered about the show and contacted the NSA and FBI press offices, but added that he didn't "expect to hear much back."

"Spying on opposition journalists is incompatible with democracy," said Carlson. "If they are doing it to us, and again, they are definitely doing it to us, they are almost certainly doing it to others. This is scary and we need to stop it right away."

The NSA responded to the claims on Tuesday night, stating that the allegation is "untrue."

"Tucker Carlson has never been an intelligence target of the Agency and the NSA has never had any plans to try to take his program off the air," said the NSA, stressing that the agency has a "foreign intelligence mission" and, with "limited exceptions," cannot target a US citizen without a court order that explicitly authorizes the targeting.
Carlson rejected the NSA's denial on Tuesday night, calling it an "infuriatingly dishonest formal statement" and "an entire paragraph of lies," adding that the NSA did not explicitly deny his claim that it read his emails. The Fox News host also stated that the Biden administration did not explicitly deny the claims. 
 
The Fox News host also referred to Gen. Paul Nakasone, the director of the NSA as a "highly political, left wing, four-star general." Carlson said that he attempted to contact Nakasone and other NSA officials for a response, but was turned away by the director's assistant and was unable to get an explanation from other officials. Carlson did not provide recordings of the calls, nor direct quotes.
 
"Orwellian does not begin to describe the experience, it was like living in China. But we should get used to it," said Carlson. "Now that the Biden administration has classified tens of millions of patriotic Americans, the kind who served in the military and fly flags in front of their homes, as potential domestic terrorists, white supremacist saboteurs, we're going to see a whole lot more of this kind of thing."
 
Carlson complained that other news agencies acted as if it's "totally normal for heavily politicized intel agencies to spy on and threaten journalists they disagree with." It is unclear what news agencies he was referring to, but he did later refer to reporters at CNN and MSNBC as the intelligence community's "lackeys," claiming that these reporters are hired by the intelligence community.
 
A number of news agencies recently accused the Trump administration and the Justice Department of attempting to obtain phone records and email logs of their reporters. Carlson did not mention these allegations in his broadcast on Tuesday night.
 
Carlson failed again on Tuesday night to provide explicit evidence of his claim, instead saying that an unnamed whistleblower had details about his emails that no one outside the recipient could have known. Carlson did not specify what those details were.
John Schindler, a former NSA officer, stated on Twitter that unless Carlson has more evidence there is "no reason" to think that the NSA is intentionally spying on him. Schindler also called the NSA denial of Carlson's claims "super rare."  

"I worked for NSA's Counterintelligence Division, the closest thing the agency has to Men in Black," tweeted Schindler. "They don't have any branch specializing in taking down TV shows the agency dislikes."

Despite making the claims without providing proof, Carlson sparked a number of conservative and Libertarian politicians to speak out against the NSA.

Rep. Lauren Boebert called on the House Committee on Oversight and Reform to "immediately and thoroughly investigate @TuckerCarlson‘s claim that the NSA is spying on him," on Twitter on Tuesday.

"If this is indeed true, criminal charges should be brought on those who have violated this private citizen’s rights," wrote Boebert.

The Libertarian Party of Texas called to "Defund the NSA" on Twitter, with the Libertarian Party of Kentucky replying to the tweet, saying "*Yeet the NSA into the sun. Same result. One is more fun."

Carlson has spread a number of conspiracy theories in the past, including a claim that the January 6 storming of the US Capitol was organized by the FBI. Fact checkers have discounted the claim, saying that it was largely based on misinterpretations of how legal writing works.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki addressed Carlson's claims about the NSA on Tuesday, telling reporters that the NSA focuses on "foreign threats" and that reporters should contact the intelligence community concerning the claims.

"Well, the NSA, as I think you’re well aware — I’m not sure everyone is aware — everyone on this plane is aware, I should say — is an entity that focuses on foreign threats and individuals who are trying — attempting to do us harm on foreign soil," said Psaki. "So, that is the — their purview.  But beyond that, I would point you to the intelligence community."

In 2013, former NSA contractor Edward Snowden exposed the agency for collecting the phone records of millions of American citizens and for data-mining the servers of internet companies, such as Google, Facebook and Apple.

Carlson's claims come just weeks after the US Department of Justice said that it would no longer seek source information from reporters in leak investigations after revelations that former President Donald Trump's administration had secretly obtained phone and email records from a number of journalists.

CNN and the Washington Post have said the Trump administration had secretly tried to obtain the phone records of some of their reporters over work they did in 2017.
The New York Times reported that the Justice Department under presidents Trump and Joe Biden waged "a secret legal battle to obtain the email logs of four New York Times reporters," and imposed a gag order on executives.

Last month, Biden said he would not allow his Justice Department to seize the phone or email records of reporters, saying any such move would be "simply wrong."

In a statement, the White House said that issuing subpoenas for reporters' records in leak investigations is not consistent with Biden administration policy.

Reuters contributed to this report.