Scotland Yard to Review Email Deletions in News Corp Hacking Case
Scotland Yard has opened a preliminary inquiry into the deletion of tens of millions of emails during the British phone-hacking scandal that rocked Rupert Murdoch’s news media empire more than a dozen years ago.
The development could entangle current and former News Corp executives, including the chief executive of The Washington Post, in an inquiry into whether the deletions were aimed at obstructing justice.
The inquiry threatens to reopen a tumultuous chapter in British news media and political history. For years, journalists and private investigators landed scoops by surreptitiously obtaining the voice mail and phone and bank records of celebrities, business leaders, politicians and others.
The scandal toppled Mr. Murdoch’s best-selling tabloid newspaper, News of the World, and led to criminal charges and years of civil lawsuits. Many hacking victims have argued for years that Mr. Murdoch’s British company, News UK, improperly purged emails to limit the fallout. The company adamantly denies that.
Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who had been the target of hacking and other surreptitious reporting methods, called for a fresh investigation this year. He cited civil litigation by Prince Harry and other phone hacking victims that unearthed fresh evidence about the destruction of some 30 million company emails.
Mark Rowley, the commissioner of Scotland Yard, responded recently to Mr. Brown, saying the case would be reviewed by the Special Enquiry Team, which specializes in sensitive matters involving high-profile subjects.
“The issues you raise are complex and will take time to consider against investigations that have already taken place,” Mr. Rowley wrote, according to a copy of the letter obtained by The New York Times.
The letter, dated June 19, did not make clear the scope of the inquiry or name subjects of interest. It said that Scotland Yard hoped to determine by the end of July what to do next. A police spokesman told The Times on Wednesday that it was still assessing the matter.
Mr. Brown has specifically asked the police to examine the role played by Will Lewis, who helped manage fallout from the scandal for Mr. Murdoch 13 years ago. Mr. Lewis was named publisher and chief executive of The Washington Post last year.
Mr. Lewis and The Post had no comment. Mr. Lewis previously told The Times that “any allegations of wrongdoing are untrue.”
A spokeswoman for News UK said in a statement that the allegations raised by Mr. Brown “are not new and have formed part of the civil litigation for many years,” adding that the former prime minister does not have access to materials the company submitted to the court in its defense.
It also noted that in 2015, the Crown Prosecution Service determined there was no evidence that warranted bringing charges against the company in relation to its email deletions.
The company has said that it deleted emails not to conceal evidence, but to upgrade a balky computer system.
The Guardian initially reported on Scotland Yard’s decision to begin the preliminary inquiry.
A confluence of events on both sides of the Atlantic have brought fresh attention to the decade-old scandal. First, Mr. Lewis’s name surfaced in one of the lawsuits. Records show that in 2011 he personally gave the “green light” to delete millions of emails after Scotland Yard opened a wide-ranging investigation into phone hacking and put the company on notice to preserve all relevant evidence.
Mr. Lewis, meanwhile, was overhauling The Post’s newsroom and privately clashed with Sally Buzbee, then the paper’s executive editor, over her decision to cover the court case. Ms. Buzbee ultimately quit, and news of the disagreement spilled out.
Investigations followed in The Times and then The Post. The Times revealed in June that Scotland Yard detectives came to view Mr. Lewis as an impediment to their investigation.
Mr. Lewis told the authorities that the company had removed some emails after receiving an unsubstantiated tip that Mr. Brown was plotting with allies to steal emails of a top company executive, according to police records.
In an opinion piece published in The Guardian on Wednesday, Mr. Brown said he “recently discovered how Lewis attempted to accuse me of a crime I did not commit.”
The spokeswoman for News UK countered that Mr. Brown was trying to persuade Scotland Yard to “take sides in a public debate in relation to media accountability.”
#Scotland #Yard #Review #Email #Deletions #News #Corp #Hacking #Case