Public criticism of News Corporation’s conduct in the British hacking scandal has crossed the ocean to the United States — and crossed the floor to the Republican side — as half a dozen members of Congress urged the government to investigate possible misconduct, including violations of a law that guards against foreign corruption.
In a letter on Wednesday, Representative Peter King, Republican of New York, pressed the F.B.I. to investigate whether journalists working for the News Corporation’s newspapers tried to obtain phone records of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, as one British newspaper claimed, citing anonymous sources.
Mr. King was the first Republican to call for an investigation into the company’s activities. The News Corporation’s chief executive, Rupert Murdoch, is a longtime supporter of conservative causes and Republican politicians.
Several of the other lawmakers who spoke out this week have been publicly critical of the News Corporation in the past. The first to issue a statement, Jay Rockefeller, Democrat of West Virginia, said Tuesday that the government should hold investigations to “ensure that Americans have not had their privacy violated.”
He was joined on Wednesday by senators like Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, who asked the Justice Department to investigate the claims involving 9/11 victims. Mr. Menendez said in his letter that the “large scope” of the hacking in Britain made it “imperative to investigate whether victims in the United States have been affected as well.”
Several civic and public interest groups, including some that have been longtime opponents of News Corporation and Mr. Murdoch, have set up petitions and proposed Congressional hearings into the company’s conduct. The executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Melanie Sloan, said Wednesday, “Just as the British Parliament has held hearings and heard the testimony of witnesses, Congress has the ability to subpoena News Corporation employees and require them to explain themselves.”
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