Is Tucker Carlson a Traitor?

The report that a Republican congressman, Max Miller, is calling for Tucker Carlson to be prosecuted for treason moves us to turn to what our Constitution has to say about this most heinous of all crimes. We carry no brief whatsoever for Mr. Carlson. We do, though, carry a brief for the Constitution, which severely limits how treason can be defined in American law. It suggests that any treason case against Mr. Carlson would be tough sledding.Longtime readers of these columns may well be rolling their eyes, for we have marked this point a dozen or more times over the years, including as recently as July. Our constitutional Framers, however, understood from Britain the way treason law could be abused. So at Philadelphia they crafted language to ensure that abuses of treason wouldn’t happen in America. Their handiwork is in Article III, where the judicial branch of our government is established.“Treason against the United States,” the parchment says, “shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.” There turn out to be but two things that can rank for treason: “Levying war” against the United States or “adhering” to America’s enemies. Then, again, too, adhering must also involve giving our enemies aid and comfort. Not one or the other but both aid and comfort.Feature the liberality of that formulation, we’ve often said. Nor did the Framers stop there. They ordained that no person shall be “convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses …” These two had to have witnessed the same act. Not any nickel-plated act. It had to be an “overt” act. The courts, the Constitution says, can’t even convict someone of treason on a confession. Any confession to treason has to be in “open Court.”No wonder Mr. Carlson is laughing at those who may be throwing around the idea of a prosecution for treason. “Everyone has always known Tucker is in love with himself and happy to sell falsehoods for attention,” Mr. Miller has posted on X.com. Writes he: “Now? Treason. If Tucker really worked with Iran against America’s interests he is a traitor and should be prosecuted.” Is that what the congressman takes from the treason clause?Mr. Carlson reports that he is being scrutinized by the federal government for communications with Iranians prior to the launch of America’s war against the Tehran regime. “The other day, I found out that the CIA is preparing some kind of criminal referral against me,” Mr. Carlson said. “What’s that crime? Well, talking to people in Iran before the war,” the commentator said in a video released on Saturday. “They read my texts.”We’re not animated here by any sympathy for Mr. Carlson. One can speculate that there are other crimes than treason that could be charged. The Rosenbergs, after all, went to the chair in respect of espionage. Our interest is in viewing the moment through the prism of the Constitution, which is the one piece of parchment to which every officer, legislator, and judge — in both the state and federal governments — must be sworn to support. There is a danger — particularly in a time of war — in overstating. One doesn’t have to be a traitor to have behaved in a despicable fashion. History will record that using the prosecutorial power to fight political battles has a way of backfiring, as it did on the foes of the 45th president. Democrats using the Justice Department for politics ended up giving President Trump the second term that they insisted he had lost. Now? Focus on winning the war.

Is Tucker Carlson a Traitor?

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