The office of the Inspector General of the NSA, which addresses cases of excesses on the part of the agency, announced a probe into “recent allegations that the NSA improperly targeted the communications of a member of the US news media,” according to an official statement issued on Tuesday.
The investigation is believed to be related to recent claims by media personality Tucker Carlson, who earlier suggested that the NSA was spying on him, according to The New York Times.
“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,” stated Inspector General Robert P. Storch.
Last month, a report from the Record appeared, claiming that Carlson had been “unmasked” by the NSA in an agency investigation, as he “was mentioned in communications between third parties."
In June, Carlson announced that his correspondence had been intercepted by the NSA “to take this show off the air.”
“The whistleblower, who is in a position to know, repeated back to us information about a story that we are working on that could have only come directly from my texts and emails. There’s no other possible source for that information, period,” Carlson asserted during an episode of his show on Fox News.
The accusations are denied by the agency, which has added that “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.”
The Fox show Tucker Carlson Tonight is one of most watched cable news programs in the US and earlier set a world record for TV program audience. Carlson is known for his conservative slant and, according to the National Interest, he is considered by some supporters to be a Republican presidential candidate in the next presidential election.