Judicial Watch: Biden-Harris State Dept Records Detail Targeting of Tucker Carlson over Putin Interview
Judicial Watch announced today it received 105 pages and 211 pages of heavily redacted records from the U.S. State Department in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit that show officials in the Biden State Department exchanging an article comparing Tucker Carlson’s February 2024 interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin to Adolph Hitler’s handing out copies of Mein Kampf to newlyweds in Germany in the 1930s.
Judicial Watch filed the lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia after the State Department failed to comply with a February 7, 2024, FOIA request (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:24-cv-00840)) for:
All (2024) emails and diplomatic notes sent to and from the following officials referencing “Tucker Carlson:” Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Deputy Secretary Victoria Nuland, Assistant Secretary James O’Brien, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Yuri Kim, Deputy Assistant Secretary Sonata Coulter, Deputy Assistant Secretary Gabriel Escobar, Deputy Assistant Secretary Joshua Huck, Deputy Assistant Secretary Douglas Jones, Deputy Assistant Secretary Jacqueline Ramos, and/or Deputy Assistant Secretary Christopher W. Smith.
On February 8, 2024, the Tucker Carlson Network and X (Twitter) ran Carlson’s interview in Moscow with Putin. It was the first interview with Putin to be granted to a Western journalist since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
The records obtained by Judicial Watch show the State Department has significant interest in the interview and significant interest in hiding its response to the interview.
In a nearly fully redacted February 20, 2024, email from top State Department official George Pyatt to U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Europe and European Affairs Christopher W. Smith, Pyatt attaches an article by Atlantic Council President and CEO Frederick Kempe titled “Dispatch from Munich: The lessons of appeasement for US lawmakers withholding support for Ukraine,” in which Kempe compares Carlson’s interview of Putin with Adolph Hitler handing out copies of Mein Kampf to newlyweds in Germany.
Kempe writes in the article that the Carlson-Hitler comparison is “not such a bizarre vehicle if one considers Carlson’s influence on a Republican minority in the House that is currently standing in the way of approving additional aid for Ukraine.”
A lengthy paper circulated by email among officials in the State Department’s Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs (EUR) beginning on February 9, 2024, is almost entirely redacted. A portion of the paper is subtitled “Tucker Carlson interview of Putin?” This section of the paper is labelled “U” (Unclassified) but all of the content is redacted citing FOIA exemption (b)(5), which covers material considered to be “deliberative” in nature, or marked “non responsive.”
https://www.judicialwatch.org/tucker-carlson-putin-interview/