Tucker Carlson claims the CIA reviewed his messages with Iran and says the Trump administration could charge him as a foreign agent

Former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson claimed this weekend that the Trump administration is coming after him.

As alleged by the political commentator, once an ally of President Donald Trump, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has reviewed his communications with people in Iran, and the Department of Justice may be preparing an indictment against him for acting as an unregistered foreign agent.

In a video posted on the social networking site X, Carlson said the CIA read text messages from him sent before the outbreak of war with Iran and that, based on that information, a criminal referral to the Department of Justice could occur.

"What's that crime? Well, talking to people in Iran before the war," Carlson said in the video, in which he maintained that the CIA "read my texts." The potential charges, as presented by Carlson, could be based on the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), a 1938 law that requires registration for those acting in the United States on behalf of foreign governments in political or lobbying activities.

Carlson, who is not formally charged, went ahead and denied acting as an agent of the Iranian regime. "I'm not an agent of a foreign power. I have only one loyalty, and that's the United States," the anchor said, further assuring that he has never received money from another country and that talking to foreign sources is part of his job as a journalist and political analyst.

The commentator also suggested the investigation might have a political motive, noting that some criticism of him stemmed from his stances on Israel and the war with Iran. "become more authoritarian in wartime," he said. "Much less tolerance for any kind of dissent."

Was Tucker used?

Carlson's remarks follow several weeks of public confrontation with President Donald Trump. The host has sharply questioned the attack on Iran, while the U.S. leader has claimed that Carlson is not a true ally of MAGA.

Before the clashes, Carlson was very close to Trump's first ring, sitting in on meetings with top officials and having virtually privileged access at the White House.

Journalist David Alandete, Washington, D.C. correspondent for ABC of Spain, recounted that Carlson was seen on several occasions at the White House during sensitive moments when issues such as policy toward Venezuela, oil or the situation with Iran were being discussed.

According to his testimony, his presence at sensitive meetings raised questions among journalists regarding the role the commentator played, as such gatherings are typically reserved for government officials, diplomats, or national security advisors.

Following Carlson's video-denunciation, Alandete posited that some episodes from those months "begin to be seen in a different light," suggesting that the anchor could have been used as a counterintelligence weapon against Iran.

"If that is true, many scenes from these months are beginning to be seen in a different light. Those discreet entrances to the White House. Those meetings in which nobody understood what he was doing there. And those conversations in which Trump seemed to give him information that later turned out to be incomplete or outright wrong. In the administration itself, there is talk that Trump may have been feeding him wrong or incomplete information to mislead the ayatollahs before the attack."

Criticism from the conservative world

Carlson's statements also drew harsh reactions from within the conservative establishment itself.

Commentator Mark R. Levin publicly accused Carlson of having acted in a manner detrimental to U.S. interests if he actually maintained communications with figures linked to the Iranian regime. Levin argued that the release of the video could be an attempt to preempt potential legal action.

According to Levin, if U.S. authorities actually possess Carlson's messages, the content of those communications could determine whether he was simply conducting interviews or whether he went further, for example, offering advice or information to foreign actors. The analyst added that, depending on the facts, the case could be more serious than a possible FARA violation.

However, Levin also acknowledged that he does not have access to official information and that his conclusions are based solely on what Carlson has publicly stated.

So far, neither the CIA nor the Department of Justice has confirmed the existence of an investigation or possible indictment against Carlson.