Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has stated under oath that Tucker Carlson is funded by a Russian state media company, without providing evidence to support the claim.

Trudeau made the accusation against Carlson and his conservative media colleague Jordan Peterson while testifying at a public inquiry into foreign interference on Wednesday.

The Canadian prime minister addressed Russia’s alleged influence in spreading anti-vaccination sentiments in the media and social media during the “Freedom Convoy,” a protest against COVID-19 vaccines and restrictions in Canada in early 2022.

“We saw that anti-vaccination messages during the convoy and during the pandemic were amplified by Russian propaganda, particularly in the right-wing media,” Trudeau said, according to a translation from French by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

He added that several of these channels began spreading “pro-Putin propaganda” after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

“We recently saw that RT is currently funding bloggers and other right-wing YouTube personalities like Jordan Peterson. Other well-known names, including Tucker Carlson, to amplify messages that destabilize democracies,” Trudeau said, citing the Russian state-controlled network.

Trudeau provided no evidence to support the claim and Newsweek could not verify this independently. The Tucker Carlson Network, its streaming platform, had previously denied “having entered into any deals with state media in any country.”

Carlson was the highest-rated cable television host before leaving Fox News in April 2023. He started a new show on Twitter titled Tucker on Twitterwhich later changed to Tucker on X with the rebranding of the social media network.

Newsweek contacted Carlson by email through the Tucker Carlson Network and Peterson by email outside of regular work hours. This article will be updated if any of them respond.

Peterson, the Canadian psychologist and commentator, disputed Trudeau’s claim in a post

“Rubles are stuffed into my mattress. Comfortable. Tee hee,” Peterson added in another post.

At the start of his testimony, Trudeau referred to a recent indictment from the U.S. Department of Justice that alleged RT employees paid millions of dollars to the conservative U.S. company Tenet Media to produce content and carry out a secret influence campaign.

However, neither Carlson nor Peterson were named in the DOJ indictment.

Trudeau, leader of the Liberal Party, has himself been criticized for his statements during the inquiry.

During his testimony on Wednesday, Trudeau said he had the names of members of the opposition Conservative Party who are involved in or at high risk of foreign interference. Michael Chong, a member of the Conservative Party, said Trudeau was “using the public inquiry as an opportunity for a partisan attack to denigrate the Conservative Party and the leader of the Conservative Party.”

RT, formerly Russia Today, is described by the DOJ as an important tool for spreading Kremlin propaganda. After the invasion of Ukraine, it was banned in the European Union, Canada and the United Kingdom.

The network was called “Russia Today” before its rename.

Critics accused Carlson of using Russian propaganda topics in his show, particularly with regard to the war in Ukraine.

He caused further controversy when he traveled to Moscow to interview Vladimir Putin in February 2024, with the Russian president making several false or misleading statements, which Carlson did not dispute.

Carlson said before the interview that he was talking to Putin to inform the Americans.

“Most Americans have no idea why Putin invaded Ukraine or what his goals are now,” he said in a video statement.

“We are not here because we love Vladimir Putin… We do not encourage you to agree with anything Putin might say in this interview, but we urge you to watch it. You should know as much as possible.”

Update 10/18/24, 10:21 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.