Accuracy of James Murdoch’s Hacking Testimony In Doubt
British lawmaker calls for new police probe into whether the News Corp. exec knew of widespread hacking.
| Posted Friday, July 22, 2011, at 10:47 AM
Rupert Murdoch’s son James is in more hot water after allegations that he lied during his testimony to Parliament earlier this week.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said Friday that the younger Murdoch still has “questions to answer” regarding the phone hacking scandal and a key lawmaker called for police to open up a new inquiry into the matter.
The mounting parliamentary scrutiny came a day after two former executives at News International – the British newspaper arm of News Corp. – publicly contradicted statements Murdoch made at Tuesday’s hearing on the phone hacking scandal.
The two former execs said that they told Murdoch back in 2008 of evidence suggesting the practice of phone hacking was widespread and informed him that “he was authorizing an unusually large secret settlement of a lawsuit brought by a hacking victim,” the New York Times reports.
Murdoch, however, told Parliament on Tuesday that he agreed to the roughly $1.4 million settlement because it made financial sense and that he had not been shown the evidence in question, which was a rather damning company email containing a transcript of a hacked phone message.
On Thursday, Murdoch released a nine-word statement sticking to his story: “I stand behind my testimony to the Select Committee.”
