Watchdog sues State Dept. to obtain Biden officials' communications about Tucker Carlson
Agency reportedly delayed request for 'unusual circumstances'
A nonprofit government watchdog is suing the U.S. State Department to obtain communications between top officials regarding Tucker Carlson after the agency reportedly failed to comply with a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.
The Washington, D.C.-based conservative activist organization Judicial Watch announced in a statement Tuesday that it filed a lawsuit on March 22 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia alleging that the State Department cited "unusual circumstances" regarding why its FOIA request of Feb. 7 was delayed as of March 19 and remains unfulfilled.
The complaint alleges that the State Department triggered FOIA's administrative exhaustion requirement by failing to reach a determination on their request by March 21.
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The request demanded all emails and other diplomatic communications between Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Deputy Secretary Victoria Nuland and other department officials regarding the former Fox News host, who recently interviewed Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
Judicial Watch's complaint requests the court to order the State Department to conduct the searches related to their FOIA request, produce the requested records or explain why they are being withheld, enjoin them against continuing to withhold non-exempt records and pay the attorneys' fees and other litigation costs.
"Why is the Biden State Department violating FOIA law to hide records on Tucker Carlson?" asked Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.
In the past, Carlson has alleged that the government obtained private texts regarding multiple planned meetings with Putin via surveillance.
In 2021, Carlson said on his Fox News show that a whistleblower in Washington, D.C., had informed him that the National Security Agency (NSA) — under the U.S. Department of Defense — had been spying on his texts regarding a planned trip to Russia.
He further claimed the NSA planned to leak information about the planned meeting to media outlets in an attempt to have his show taken off the air.
The NSA publicly denied Carlson's allegation. Carlson maintained on the "Full Send Podcast" in March 2023 that the NSA admitted to Congress that it had been spying on his encrypted messages on Signal, purportedly a secure app.
"Congress asked NSA and NSA was like, 'Yes, we did this but for good reason!' What would be a good reason to read [my texts]? ... Everyone's in on it — Republicans and Democrats are all in on it," he said.
"And by 'it,' I mean the assumption that there's no privacy whatsoever, that they have a right to know everything you're saying and thinking," he added. "And that's just not a right, as far as I'm concerned. And by the way, if you have no privacy, you have no freedom."
The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to The Christian Post's request for comment.
Jon Brown is a reporter for The Christian Post. Send news tips to jon.brown@christianpost.com
