Conservative journalist and commentator Tucker Carlson stated in a video published on Saturday (14) on his account on the social network X that the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was preparing a criminal complaint against him for having maintained contacts with people in Iran before the start of the ongoing war in the Middle East. According to Carlson, the accusation could bring him under the law that regulates the activities of foreign agents in the USA.
“I discovered that the CIA is preparing some kind of criminal complaint against me, a report to the Department of Justice, based on an alleged crime that I had committed,” he said. “What’s the crime? Talking to people in Iran before the war. They read my messages,” he added.
Carlson says in the video that the possible CIA accusation would involve the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), law used in the USA to classify people who act as agents of foreign interests without registering with the American government. According to him, the complaint, which is being prepared to be sent to the Department of Justice, would be related to conversations he had with Iranian interlocutors before the start of the US and Israeli conflict against the Tehran regime on February 28.
Carlson denied that he had acted as an agent for a foreign government and stated that talking to international sources is part of the job of political commentators. He said his “only loyalty” is to the United States and said he has never received money from foreign officials.
The journalist stated that he does not believe that the CIA’s complaint will progress to a formal process, but stated that he decided to make the case public because he considers that “moments of war tend to increase pressure against divergent opinions”. He said that “countries tend to become more restrictive during armed conflicts, which would reduce tolerance for internal criticism.”
The revelation comes after a series of criticisms made by Carlson of the military operation carried out by the United States and Israel against Iran in recent weeks. Speaking to the American press, the journalist even classified the ongoing operation as “absolutely repugnant and evil” and said that it would not be directly linked to US national security interests.
Carlson’s criticisms were not well received by President Donald Trump, who stated earlier this month that the journalist had “lost his way” and that he no longer represented the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement.
Carlson had already expressed opposition to the war against Iran in private meetings he had with Trump before the start of the military operation. The journalist and the American president met in January at the White House.
