Tucker Carlson was talking to U.S.-based Kremlin intermediaries about setting up an interview with Vladimir Putin shortly before the Fox News host accused the National Security Agency of spying on him, sources familiar with the conversations tell Axios.

Why it matters: Those sources said U.S. government officials learned about Carlson's efforts to secure the Putin interview. Carlson learned that the government was aware of his outreach — and that's the basis of his extraordinary accusation, followed by a rare public denial by the NSA that he had been targeted.

Axios has not confirmed whether any communications from Carlson have been intercepted, and if so, why.

The big picture: Carlson's charges instantly became a cause célèbre on the right, which feasted on the allegation that one of America's most prominent conservatives might have been monitored by the U.S. intelligence community.

The backstory: Carlson told his roughly 3 million viewers on June 28 that the day before, he had heard "from a whistleblower within the U.S. government who reached out to warn us that the NSA … is monitoring our electronic communications and is planning to leak them in an attempt to take this show off the air."

https://www.axios.com/tucker-carlson-putin-interview-surveillance-c9952d7c-33d7-45e9-be68-2ba4c3817f98.html

The scene at Bedminster in preparation for Trump's 11AM announcement about how he's going to protect free speech.

College Park, Md. – A Virginia man charged with joining the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol told an undercover FBI agent that he belonged to a militia-style group and coordinated “surveillance efforts” on the same building more than a month after the riot, according to a court filing unsealed on Tuesday.

The filing, which accompanied a criminal complaint against Fi Duong, doesn’t specify why he and an associate wanted to surveil the Capitol for weeks after the Jan. 6 insurrection. But it says an undercover agent attended meetings of Duong’s group and that investigators intercepted encrypted communications about post-riot surveillance work.

“How do we feel about an Intel run around the Capitol tonight?” an unnamed associate asked Duong during a Feb. 13 exchange on the encrypted messaging platform. “Fewer of them out. Posture may be lowered. Good opportunity to expose weaknesses.”

“Poke and prod. But have a legitimate reason to go. Visit a restaurant or something. Get something cheap. Walk around a bit,” Duong responded, according to an FBI agent’s affidavit.

The same associate was seen driving around the U.S. Capitol after telling the group on April 2 that he planned to conduct surveillance on the building. He later said he got rid of surveillance footage that he took, but that Duong still had it, the agent said.

Duong is one of more than 520 federal defendants charged in the Capitol riot so far. The FBI has linked dozens of them to far-right extremist groups, including several members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers who are charged with conspiring to mount a coordinated attack on Jan. 6.

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/nation/2021/07/06/fbi-militia-style-group-surveilled-capitol-weeks-after-riot/7878370002/

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) will deploy Ohio State Highway Patrol troopers to Texas at the request of Gov. Greg Abbott, according to a press release. The 14 troopers will travel to Texas on a two-week assignment to help with local border surveillance but will not make any arrests. Last week DeWine authorized 185 members of the Ohio Army National Guard to travel to Texas to offer support for border operations with U.S. Custom and Border Protection. The move was made at the request of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The operations at the border are part of Abbott’s “Operation Lone Star,” an effort to track down illegal immigrants within the state amid the surge of individuals making their way to the southern border. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem recently sent her own contingent of National Guard troops to the border, in a trip funded by a conservative billionaire. Other Republicans, including Gov. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas have criticized Noem’s decision to accept political donations to pay for the deployment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/ohio-governor-mike-dewine-to-send-highway-patrol-troopers-to-border/