Journalist Timothy Burke was indicted Thursday on charges pertaining to hacking, he had been under investigation in relation to the publication of leaked videos of former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
The unflattering videos surfaced online last spring in the days after Carlson was ousted from the network at which he had been the top host for years.
Burke’s attorney previously denied his client’s involvement, saying he ‘never hacked Fox News,’ and adding, ‘We are confident that when all the facts come out, it will be demonstrated that Timothy never hacked anyone and that all the information he provided was accessible to the public.’
The Washington Post’s Will Sommer broke the news Thursday, saying an arraignment is set for 2pm.
Federal authorities searched Burke’s home last summer. The federal indictment is for conspiracy to commit hacking, and is related to Burke’s access to unpublished Fox News footage.
Burke’s attorney, Mark Rasch, told the Washington Post last year: ‘Tim is a master at finding links to stuff publicly posted on the internet.’
‘If a video is posted, public, unencrypted, and unprotected, then there’s simply no crime committed when a journalist like Tim finds it, reviews it, and accurately reports on it, even where, and maybe especially where, the subjects wish it was suppressed. That’s the essence of journalism in the digital age.’
The leaked footage of Carlson included several hot mic moments published by left-wing watchdog group Media Matters.
In one clip, Carlson appeared to bash Dominion Voting Systems’ lawyer, with whom he had sat for a deposition earlier in the day.
In the tape, he called the Dominion lawyer a ‘slimy little motherf**ker’ who, ‘triggered’ him.
Fox News would go on to settle with Dominion for the eye-watering sum of $787.5million in an 11th hour deal ahead of trial.
In another video, Carlson says he resents Fox’s subscription service ‘Fox Nation,’ because ‘the site sucks.’
‘Nobody watches Fox Nation because the site sucks,’ he is seen and heard saying into his phone, on which he is having a conversation with representatives for controversial internet personality Andrew Tate.
In yet another video, Carlson joked about his appearance and said he would wait for his ‘post-menopausal fans’ to tell him how he looked on-air.
He said under his breath that someone’s ‘girlfriend was yummy,’ then added: ‘Just kidding, in case this is being pulled off the bird. Hey, Media Matters for America, go f**k yourself! I don’t even know what his girlfriend looks like.
‘And if I did, I would not find her yummy.’
To an off-camera assistant, he then joked: ‘I can never assess my appearance. I wait for my postmenopausal fans to weigh in on that.’
In other moments, Carlson lambasts his colleagues at the network for using preferred gender pronouns and asks an on-set makeup artist, in jest, if ‘pillow fights ever break out’ in the women’s restroom.
At the time, media allies of Carlson suggested that it was Fox that had leaked the video as a sort of justification for the star’s firing.
But the network denied the accusation and send Media Maters a strongly worded cease-and-desist letter.
Burke, who currently runs his own communications company, has worked previously for outlets including The Daily Beast and Gawker.
His wife, Lynn Hurtak, is a Tampa city councilwoman, who appears to be aligned with progressive causes.
