Judge Orders News International To Search Laptops; FBI Now Planning Probe In U.S.?

Following yesterday’s revelations of settlements in the News Of The World phone hacking scandal, it’s now reported that News Corp’s News International could face an FBI investigation over a possible offense on US soil involving Jude Law. According to The Telegraph, the potential FBI probe relates to a 2003 News Of The World article that News International has acknowledged was the result of phone hacking. The article contains references to phone calls Law’s assistant made to the actor when he arrived at an airport believed to be New York’s JFK. According to the Telegraph report, if Law’s phone was on a US network, it could mean an offense under US law. The FBI confirmed it was looking into the situation. In related news, News International has been ordered to search more computers for evidence of attempts by former employees to perpetrate a cover up of phone hacking schemes. On Thursday, it emerged that News Group Newspapers, the News International subsidiary that published News Of The World, had agreed to allow that senior managers were aware of phone hacking by journalists at the now shuttered paper, but solely as a basis for determining settlement amounts and not as an official admission. Still, the judge in the case, Geoffrey Vos, said the “limited admission” wasn’t sufficient reason to avoid new searches. According to Bloomberg, the judge’s order applies to 3 laptops used by an unidentified former senior employee and 6 other computers. “They are to be treated as deliberate destroyers of evidence,” Vos said of News International on Thursday. “I have been shown a number of e-mails which are confidential. Suffice it to say they show a rather startling approach to the e-mail record” of the company. He also said that he had seen emails which demonstrated “a previously conceived plan to conceal evidence” being put into place a few days after Sienna Miller’s attorneys asked the publisher to retain emails which might relate to her voicemail being hacked. Per Bloomberg, News International’s lawyer, Dinah Rose, argued the computer searches ordered by the judge were a waste of time because it is unlikely they bear anything relevant to a trial which is scheduled to begin next month. “We accept we are the villains,” Rose told the judge. “We have the horns and the tails.”