Washington:
The Justice Department says Attorney General Eric Holder would welcome a meeting with some families of 9/11 victims concerned that their phones may have been hacked in the scandal that has rocked the global news empire of Rupert Murdoch.
Justice Department spokesman Matthew Miller says the attorney general has met with 9/11 family members on a number of occasions. Miller says the department is reaching out to schedule a meeting to discuss any concerns they would like to bring to the department's attention. The FBI has begun an initial look at the published allegation of phone hacking on behalf of British newspapers to determine if US laws might have been broken.
The families on Monday requested meetings with Holder, FBI Director Robert Mueller and the House Judiciary Committee's ranking Democrats.
The investigation is in its earliest stages, two of the people said, and its scope is not yet clear. It also is unclear whether the FBI has identified possible targets of the investigation or possible specific criminal violations.
The inquiry was prompted in part by a letter from Representative Peter T. King, a Long Island Republican, to Robert S. Mueller III, the FBI. director, in which he asked that the bureau immediately open an investigation of News Corporation, citing news reports that journalists working for its subsidiary, The News of the World, had tried to obtain the phone records of 9/11 victims through bribery and unauthorized wiretapping, the people said.
The inquiry was expected to be handled jointly by two FBI. squads in the bureau's New York office, one that investigates cybercrimes and another that focuses on public corruption and white-collar crimes, two of the people said. They all spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case.
It was not immediately clear whether federal prosecutors in Manhattan were involved in the case; they would most likely have jurisdiction over any prosecution because the 9/11 victims and their cellphones were in Manhattan when they died.
Ellen Davis, a spokeswoman for the United States attorney's office in Manhattan, declined to comment.
Laura Sweeney, a Justice Department spokeswoman in Washington, said: "The department does not comment specifically on investigations, though anytime we see evidence of wrongdoing, we take appropriate action. The department has received letters from several members of Congress regarding allegations related to News Corporation, and we're reviewing those."