Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, reportedly plans to press the Biden administration over allegations it eavesdropped on Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
Mr. Rubio, the committee’s vice chairman, said he plans to raise concerns regarding the claim with Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, The Record cybersecurity website reported Thursday.
Mr. Rubio will tell Ms. Haines in a letter that he thinks the episode involving Mr. Carlson is “undermining the intelligence community” and will request any information she can offer, the report said.
“If there’s no information, then tell us that,” Mr. Rubio said, according to the article.
Spokespeople for Mr. Rubio did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mr. Carlson, a conservative commentator highly critical of President Biden, has recently said his private emails were intercepted by the National Security Agency and leaked to the press.
The NSA denied targeting Mr. Carlson and noted it has a “foreign intelligence mission.” Mr. Carlson subsequently said the emails involved his attempts to interview Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Regardless, Mr. Carlson has continued to raise concerns about the messages being leaked and says his identity was illegally “unmasked” as part of an effort to hurt his popular Fox News show.
“I should have been identified internally merely as a U.S. journalist or American journalist,” Mr. Carlson said recently. “That’s the law. But that’s not how I was identified. I was identified by name.
“I was unmasked,” he said. “People in the building learned who I was, and then my name and the contents of my emails left that building at the NSA and wound up with a news organization in Washington.”
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, California Republican, previously said that he instructed Rep. Devin Nunes of California, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, to investigate the allegations.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.