Attorney General Eric Holder spoke Friday for the first time about the News Corp. phone hacking scandal, saying that his office is responding to calls from members of Congress for an investigation into whether 9/11 victims’ phones were hacked.
“There have been serious allegations raised in that regard in Great Britain and there is an ongoing investigation there,” Holder said in Sydney, Australia, where he is attending a meeting of justice officials from around the world, AFP reported.
“There have been members of Congress in the United States who have asked us to investigate the same allegations, and we are progressing in that regard using the appropriate federal law enforcement agencies in the United States,” he added.
Holder confirmed that the FBI, which is part of the Justice Department, has launched its own informal probe over the September 11 allegations, as was reported on Thursday.
A former New York police officer who works as a private investigator has told the British press that he was contacted by the now-shuttered News of the World to access the phone records of victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
