US senator invokes website-hacking trial in call for Murdoch inquiry

[seafan]

Source: UK Guardian

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The 2009 trial of Floorgraphics versus News Corp was invoked on Wednesday by Frank Lautenberg, a New Jersey senator who has called for an official inquiry into News Corporation behaviour in the US. He has written to the attorney general Eric Holder, asking him to take into account evidence thrown up during the trial that News America had engaged in computer hacking and to incorporate it as part of the ongoing justice department and FBI investigation into News Corporation practices.

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The most controversial element of the trial was the evidence presented by Floorgraphics to the jury that its website, protected by password security, had been broken into without authorisation. The computer breach, which Floorgraphics discovered in 2004 and had taken place 11 times over four months, was traced back to an IP address registered to News America's offices in Connecticut.

The unauthorised access of the firm's computer from a News America address became the subject of a 2005 FBI and US secret service investigation. The outcome of those inquiries is not known.

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During the trial, the jury heard from a former News America manager, Robert Emmel, who recalled the chief executive (Paul) Carlucci telling his staff: "If there were individuals concerned about doing the right thing – bed-wetting liberals in particular – then he could arrange for them to be out-placed from the company."



Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/21/phone-hacking-news-corporation/print

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Paul Carlucci is now the publisher of the Murdoch tabloid paper the New York Post.

Also noted in this article is that this trial was dropped after only a couple of days, in a deal in which News America bought out Floorgraphics for $29.5 million under condition that Floorgraphics drop the case.


Why have the FBI and US secret service been tightly sitting on the findings of this six-year old investigation?