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Rupert Murdoch, CEO of News Corporation, in this file image.
LONDON -- Lawsuits over alleged phone hacking by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation are to be filed in United States courts for the first time.
Mark Lewis, the lawyer who has been at the forefront of efforts to expose phone hacking at newspapers opened by News Corporation's British subsidiary, expects to file civil lawsuits on behalf of three alleged victims.
One is believed to be connected to the late Diana, Princess of Wales and the Royal household while a second is linked to the England soccer team. The third is described as a "Hollywood case" because the individual was in contact with a celebrity. All three claim that the offenses took place while they were on American soil.
The threat of legal action in the U.S. is likely to expose News Corp to further embarrassing claims and bring the scandal closer to its headquarters in New York.
Timeline: News Corp and the phone hacking scandal
Lewis was flying to San Francisco Thursday, from where he will travel next week to New York in order to meet with U.S. lawyers to discuss the cases.
In an email to msnbc.com Lewis confirmed reports that he expects to bring three lawsuits on behalf of clients and a fourth alleging wrongdoing at News Corp. He told the Daily Beast on Wednesday that the fourth lawsuit would center on "perhaps the dirty tricks that might have been used in order to further the commercial aims for News Corporation."
At least one of the cases involves allegations that the phone of a U.S. citizen was hacked, and Lewis said more U.S. victims of phone hacking were likely to emerge.
He told the Daily Beast: "This is getting wider. It's not just the people who were A-list or celebrities, but people who were in their circles — people who might call them or work with them."
Meanwhile, police regulators in Britain on Thursday said senior detectives showed poor judgment in their close relationship with executives at Murdoch's News Of The World tabloid.
A former executive at the newspaper, which was shut down in July 2011 amid public outrage at phone hacking revelations, was appointed as an adviser to London's Metropolitan Police, and his daughter also secured a job with the force.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission said professional boundaries at the police force "became blurred," the BBC reported.
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Leave a Comment:
About time, stop letting these global criminals get away with crimes while they take refuge in the U.S.A.
Our country is all about being free and if I found out that somone was listening into my convo's, I'd sue the @!$%# out of them too! Hope they win and win big.
Blake-2644321 - I agree 100%. Shame we can't sue our own government for the same reason...
blake
Someone has been listening to your phone calls for at least ten years. Before and after the patriot act.
People listening to my phone calls have probably been bored to death and beyond law suits.
If people weren't so infatuated with the lives and rumors of celebraties this kind of garbage probably wouldn't be happening. The celebraties have to be sick of it as much as I'm sick of hearing about it.
There is a core immorality to the methods and people associated with Rupert Murdoch. They will be judged by their deeds and their intentions. Further immorality on their part will not fix this for them, even if/as they are too blinded by their immorality and power to recognize that. At best they will not make things worse for themselves, but odd are they will. So it goes with the immoral authoritarian.
I hope there is enough justice in this case to bring Faux News into it. This is a disgrace to news media and is of course Rupert Murdoch's baby..also a Republican lackey from Day One.
Once it starts to get close to Fox everything will unravel. They'll be lining up to sell each other out to save their own skins.
In front of an English Parliamentarian panel Murdoch sacrificed some of his own people. I expect he paid them handsomely for being tossed under the double-decker bus, but the point is that this sort of back-stabbing and plea-copping has already begun.
Bet you George Soros is backing this lawyer.
sonny 1973, you win the prize for most idiiotic comment of the day.
Stupid is easy. Unfortunately, it also becomes an entranched habit with the intellectually dishonest and lazy.
As result, libeling people -- without a shred of evidence -- becomes the norm for the proudly ignorant and illiterate.
Funny how someone working for Murdoch does something stupid and they want to ruin him but when a NBC manager tries to start a race war not a big deal huh!
"Someone"
Do you mean his son that oversaw the entire thing? The son that is daily communication with his father about the business?
He's going to have to shell out a lot of money to make this go away. Something tells me the DOJ won't be interested in settling though.
sonny
You mean something illegal?
The guy at NBC got caught editing audiotapes and was fired. If they fired everyone a flox for doing that. No one would be working there.
Your comparing audio manipulations with Hacking into voice mail accts of 911 victems? Which one is getting the Govt involved with lawsuits and which one is not? That will tell you which one is the worse offense!!! It was not just someone it was a culture!!!
These Fox News Junkies are really mad!!!
We don't need the British filing in our courts for their problems. Our courts are full enough.
Somebody stop him from filing.
The victims were in America, Rupert made it our problem.
Right: We want to keep the Rupert "I Illegally Hack the Private Voicemail Acconts of Murdered Children" Murdoch dirt under the rug so we can pretend the far-right wing is not only moral but more moral than everyone else.
Even though it requires the immorality of lying to uphold that pretense to moral superiority.
On the other hand, of course, you wouldn't object to US citizens suing in British courts. Unless, of course, they were suing the sleazy slime-peddling emotional pornographer Rupert Murdoch.
.
"this country is all about freedom" Really?!?!? We lost that years ago. Fewer and fewer people know what real freedom is in this country anymore. "Rights" have replaced "Freedom" in people's understanding, thanks to our education system (schools and the media). If you are really concerned about hacking private citizens' conversations, look no further than the US Government. They make what Murdoch's organization look like dime hacks, all in the guise of "protecting your freedom".
Whatever the results are in the courtroom on this shooting, I pray it doesn't end up becoming a war between the Hispanic and African American communities.
More smoke and mirrors from our justice department. They will go to court and fine Murdoch 2 o3 million dollars and all will be well. Lets do a comparson, a fine Murdock 2 or 3 million dollars would be the same as charging a homeless person a fine of 4 cents. If the justice department wanted to really show they mean business they should put the guy in jail for 2 years and fine him $500,000,000.00 dollars this would make him listen. Our justice system of selective prosecution makes a mockery out of our judical system. In the US you only get as much justice as you can afford.
Everything you text, say and send from your cell phone and everything you write, send or post on or through the web, and anything that travels over a satellite is intercepted analyzed and saved by the NSA. Big brother is watching and listening, but they are only interested in plots against the USA. But, when the Sh!T hits the fan...and it will in the next 3 decades, FEMA will take over the US...which it can by the powers it has!!!! Read up
What a pity that so many people do not see the "clear as glass" difference in the treatment of Blacks and other members of our society. There is definitely a double standard in gauging who is more likely to be a threat - even if that gauging is purely stereotypical. When biased people begin to treat ALL human beings as individuals, and not assign them their anticipated behavior based on race, we will have begun to resolve race relations in this country.
I believe that Trayvon's mother is doing much better than I would be capable of in this situation. An apology would not be enough for me, and I commend the District Attorney's office in deciding to charge this case with vigor, intent and a real interest in getting to the real reason this young man is dead. What sad situation, what does this say about our world, our ability to disregard human civil rights. Racial Haters, bigots, et al are the most pathetic, non-thinking dullards in our world. They think that they are smart, but they could not be any stupider if they tried.
I sincerely hope that Mr. Zimmerman is held accountable for his trigger happy behavior that cost a family a son, and a young man, his life.
Anitamarie
Oops, I take that back. Your big prize of the day, sonny 1973, is actually your last out-of-the-@!$%# comment trying to drag NBC news into this. I think you need to try to get a job with Big Rupert. He's right up your...er, alley. or vice versa.
If they should put Murduck in jail for what he did ,and make it fair to EVERYONE, the whole staff at NBC and MSNBC should be in jail! But there again you have the right to say almost anything on a comody/ game show!!!
Anitamarie...If you want to bring together the racies get ride of the trouble makers.... the black panthers,al sharpton, jesse jackson, obama just to name a few. They bread hatread./
We all know Faux Nooze is just as deeply involved, can't wait to see the end of those idiots.
ourdoc if BS produced power you nbc and msnbc would power the WHOLE COUNTRY but I guess that's poluting the air too!!!!
There has been a media frenzy and a great deal of polemic over the Trayvon Martin tragedy. But despite everything that has been advanced and argued — to my knowledge — not one person has addressed the real issue here.
Was Mr. Zimmerman's nose broken or not? Was the back of his head bloody? Was he attacked by Mr. Martin? Did Mr. Martin threaten him? It goes on and on, yet the one vital fact that everyone chooses to ignore is this:
Mr. Zimmerman, a self-appointed vigilante wannabe police officer followed Mr. Martin down a public street and at some point got out of his vehicle and there was a confrontation.
Because of his telephone conversation, we know Mr. Martin was already (rightly) concerned that he was being followed.
If you or I or anyone else were walking down a sidewalk in the evening and felt someone was following us, we'd have to be concerned. If that person got out of his vehicle and approached us, our concern would certainly be heightened, and if that person accosted us, either verbally or physically, we would feel completely justified in refusing to answer any questions, such as where we are going, what we're doing or anything else.
If Mr. Zimmerman had then tried to lay hands on me, I'd certainly feel threatened and here I firmly believe is where the "stand your ground" law comes into play. I believe it would be Mr. Martin's right — even his obligation — to stand his ground. Running away was not much of an option when Mr. Zimmerman had a car and perhaps he even presented his firearm to get Mr. Martin's attention.
Mr. Zimmerman clearly had no authority either to accost a civilian walking down a sidewalk nor to present a weapon. Even real policemen seldom draw their weapon in such a situation.
The defense will doubtless draw up numerous scenarios for what happened after Mr. Zimmerman exited his vehicle. Several possibilities spring to mind even as I write. But everything we've heard so far and every defense Mr. Zimmerman's attorney may dream up are of necessity without merit, designed solely to mitigate Mr. Zimmerman's actions. The crux of the matter is that Mr. Zimmerman followed Mr. Martin down a street, stopped and exited his vehicle and accosted the victim. There's no getting around that fact. If he had stopped following Mr. Martin as suggested by the 911 operator, a terrible tragedy would have been averted.
I believe the chief of police should be considered an accomplice in this matter. He knew — or certainly should have realized — that Mr. Zimmerman has issues. Mr. Zimmerman couldn't get on the police force, probably for psychological reasons. At some point he assaulted a police officer, a felony that family ties evidently got reduced to a misdemeanor. Obviously Mr. Zimmerman should never have been permitted to carry a weapon. Rather than give him a handbook and encourage him to become a neighborhood vigilante, the chief should have dissuaded him. Certainly after some 47 calls to 911 to report "suspicious a persons" in, I believe, three months, should have alerted authorities to Mr. Zimmerman's mental state. True, without a weapon and against instructions by the chief, he might have continued to patrol his neighborhood, but then the entire onus would have rested on Mr. Zimmerman's shoulders alone. Under the circumstances, I firmly believe the chief of police must share the blame and he should be indicted too.
I feel very sorry not only for Mr.Martin's family and their loss, but for Mr. Zimmerman as well. He was let down by a system that should have foreseen his mental state and his thinking processes and stopped him well in advance of this tragedy.
Many already forget the seriousness and scope of News Corp's lawbreaking, but we also never got a lot of the later reporting of how criminal wrongdoing went right to the top, was covered over and stalled, but cannot ultimately be denied.
For a comprehensive overview with chilling updates, check out this podcast from July which includes John Stewart, Steven Colbert, NPR, The Young Turks and many others commenting on the scandal that Murdoch and Fox doesn't want America to know about. LINK:
the young turks , really? maybe npr but otherwise anyone that is not a comedian.