By Sarah N. Lynch
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The internal watchdog for the National Security Agency (NSA) said on Tuesday it was launching an inquiry into allegations that the agency had improperly spied on a member of the U.S. news media.
The inspector general’s office did not identify which reporter or media outlet that is at the heart of its review, but the development comes a few months after Fox News conservative host Tucker Carlson claimed he had heard from a whistleblower who told him the NSA was monitoring his communications in a plot to leak them and force him off the air.
In late June, the NSA took the unusual step https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-intelligence-agency-says-it-isnt-spying-foxs-tucker-carlson-2021-06-30 of publicly denying those allegations.
“This 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,” the NSA said in a statement posted on Twitter.
(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
