Former Fox News anchor-turned-podcaster Tucker Carlson has claimed that he may be staring at possible criminal charges in the US for “talking to people in Iran before the war.” The conservative commentator, a vocal critic of the US and Israeli actions in West Asia, said his past interactions could now be under scrutiny.
In a video shared on X (formerly Twitter), he alleged that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is preparing a criminal referral against him.
“The CIA is preparing some kind of criminal referral against me, a crime report to the Department of Justice on the basis of a supposed crime I committed,” he stated.
According to him, the alleged offence boils down to “talking to people in Iran before the war.” He suggested that authorities could attempt to frame this under laws related to acting as an agent of a foreign power, despite there being no such connection.
Carlson strongly denied any wrongdoing, saying he was “not an agent of foreign power. I am like a lot of people commenting on US politics and global affairs. I have only one loyalty and that's to the United States”.
He emphasised he had not received any financial support, adding, “I haven't taken money from anyone… Don't need it, don't want it,” and described the potential case as “legally ludicrous.”
Carlson said that speaking to a wide range of people was central to his role as a commentator and interviewer.
“It is my job to talk to everybody all the time and try to figure out what is happening around the world. That is literally what I do for a living, and I'm not going to stop doing that,” he stated, adding that as an American, he believes he has the right to engage in such conversations.
He further argued that governments tend to become more restrictive during wartime, with less tolerance for “any descent in the homeland.”
He also alleged that intelligence agencies monitor American citizens more extensively than most people realise and called such practices “outrageous.”
