Hungarian secret service’s verdict: Viktor Orbán was wiretapped by the USA

The Hungarian National Information Center made its verdict on the truth of the statements and allegations about the potential wiretapping of Hungarian politicians in the leaked Pentagon Papers.

As we have previously written, the Pentagon documents leaked by 21 years-old National Guardsman Jack Teixeira had some claims and allegations about Hungary, one of them being that Hungarian leaders were wiretapped by the United States. However, as hvg.hu reports, the National Information Center debunked this information.

A previously classified report was published by the Hungarian National Information Center (NIK). This was intended to verify the truth of the allegations about Hungary that have been widely reported in the world press.

The source of the information about wiretapped politicians

According to the leaked documents, in a classified report, it was established that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán named the United States as one of his party’s top three opponents at a political strategy meeting on 22 February.

For those following the Hungarian political life, this was barely news. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán already mocked the US Ambassador to Hungary David Pressman and the Biden administration during his State of the Nation Address on 18 February.

However, the US papers directly referenced a party meeting held behind closed doors next to Lake Balaton in Balatonfüred. Therefore, the press reports over possible wiretapping took on a life of their own.

According to hvg.hu, US Ambassador David Pressman was aware of Orbán’s political opinion. However, he first read about that in Magyar Nemzet, a website with close connections to the Hungarian government. At the same time, people with knowledge of the internal situation of Fidesz refused to confirm the press reports over Orbán’s statements made in a private environment, which could have sparked the story that the US Embassy got their information via wiretapping.

While confirming the authenticity of the leaked documents, and that the USA placed emphasis on their internal documents they noted the aggressive communication of Viktor Orbán, Zoltán Kovács, president of the NIK confirmed that there was no wiretapping taking place.

“It is worth noting that some of the reports in the press may have taken the information without knowledge of the original documents published so that many of the statements in the articles are incorrect and distorted,” he is quoted by hvg.hu.

The documents also stated that military helicopters sent to Ukraine were also transferred through Hungary – which was proven to be true after these live feed shots surfaced.