h/t to AnnetteK for finding this. From The Telegraph:
The Daily Telegraph can disclose that Jay Rockefeller, chairman of the influential Senate Commerce Committee, visited News Corp’s London headquarters earlier this year in preparation for a potential Senate investigation.
The Senator met with News Corp’s most senior lawyers, Lord Grabiner and John Turnbull, to discuss allegations that staff at News Corp’s British newspaper arm, News UK, routinely intercepted voicemails and paid officials for information. It is thought that the Senator may have dispatched representatives to meet News Corp staff on at least two further occasions.
The Senate committee is unwilling to launch a full-scale investigation into the alleged wrongdoing until after a series of criminal trials of former News Corp staff, due to get under way next month. However, Senator Rockefeller is understood to be keen to amass as much evidence as possible ahead of the trials, so that the Committee is in a position to launch a potential investigation once the criminal proceedings have finished.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/...
According to the article, the FBI and DoJ investigations into News Corp are also still ongoing. One wonders if they, too, are waiting for trials in the UK to conclude before moving forward.
This feels like proof positive that the News Corp hacking/bribery scandal will indeed reach American shores at some point in the near future. It further explains Rupert's rationale for splitting his empire in half. Stay tuned...
Brit update from the comments:
There's so much to say on this... (1+ / 0-)
...but a lot of it risks prejudicing trials which start on October 28th. So I'd advise commenters not to mention any specific cases because they could be cited as contempt.
But what can be said is that Rockefeller has been on the case for a while. I hear the FBI has visited several countries looking at cases beyond the UK or the US. The DOJ investigation includes an SEC investigation into book keeping which may shed more light