MANHATTAN — Attorney General Eric Holder has agreed to meet with families of 9/11 victims who are concerned that their loved ones' phones may have been hacked by News Corporation reporters, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.
Holder is expected to meet with approximately 20 relatives on Aug. 24 to discuss the scandal, said lawyer Norman Siegel, who is representing the families, according to AP.
The meeting comes on the heels of allegations that reporters from Rupert Murdoch's now-shuttered News of the World may have tried to hack into phones of 9/11 victims following the tragedy. A former NYPD officer reportedly told one of Murdoch's rival London tabloids that he was approached by NOTW journalists about getting access to the phones.
The officer, who was working as a private investigator at the time, allegedly turned down the offer.
Siegel said he and the families will urge the Justice Department to look into the allegations as well.
"The 9/11 families have already suffered through the most horrific tragedies," Siegel wrote in the letter, dated July 18, which was sent to FBI Director Robert Mueller and Holder. "It is upsetting that there now exists an allegation that a newspaper would seek to illegally obtain information about their love ones, and perhaps even their own personal lives, and exploit it for profit."
