Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive of News International, has been charged over allegations that she tried to conceal evidence from detectives investigating phone hacking and alleged bribes to public officials.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) announced that Brooks, one of the most high-profile figures in the newspaper industry, would be charged with three counts of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice in July last year at the height of the police investigation.
Scotland Yard later confirmed she had been charged along with her husband, Charlie Brooks, and four others.
Brooks is accused of conspiring with others, including her husband, a racehorse trainer and friend of the prime minister, and her personal assistant, to conceal material from detectives.
Brooks and her husband were informed of the charging decision – the first since the start of the Operation Weeting phone-hacking investigation last January – when they answered their bail at a police station in London on Tuesday morning.
They are among six individuals from News International, along with the company's head of security, Mark Hanna, to be charged over allegations that they removed material, documents and computers to hide them from officers investigating phone hacking. The charge carries a maximum penalty of life, although the average term served in prison is 10 months.
I think Rupert Murdoch is VERY lucky that Brooks has so far been willing to take the bullet to protect him.
I wonder if she begins to think she might actually get that life sentence if that would be enough to get her to cut a deal and send her boss to the slammer. A place by the way that I think we can all agree is exactly where he belongs.
I can tell you right now that if this case extends to Fox News that Sean Hannity would turn state's evidence on his employer so fast it would make our heads spin.
Rupert and ALL of his minions need to go down . . . .
ReplyDeleteI know when anyone feels a need to roll the Murdoch stone over in this country they will find serious rot and criminality coming from News Corp. How can a supposed "news agency" who went to court to get the right to lie to their viewers not be a bunch of criminals.
If anyone ever gets the balls---it is going to get ugly.
It would be wonderful to see the mighty Murdoch fall. Though he's lucky now as he could have been back in a period of time where it'd be off with his head.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if he'll be another USA con who'll flee to Dubai or some other overseas haven, to avoid justice?
I also forget and am lazy to look it up now. Yet wasn't his son also in charge of the UK Foxian empire and also overseeing, helping to past hide, this criminal affair and scandal. I'll have to look it up later when I'm more awake.
Are you kidding! Sean the Manatee would never turn against his boss. After all, he was willing to be water boarded. Well, he was willing until he wasn't. (eye roll)
ReplyDeleteIndeed! I've no doubt that leeches like Hannity would cannibalize their makers at the drop of a dime (they'll do anything for money).
DeleteI was thinking something snarkily similar: They could waterboard SH every day, and twice on Sundays, and he still wouldn't confess. (Or some nonsense like that.)
DeleteI was thinking something snarkily similar: They could waterboard SH every day, and twice on Sundays, and he still wouldn't confess. (Or some nonsense like that.)
DeleteHey, don't insult Manatees! They are gentle giants, and Mr Hannity is neither!
Deletefromthediagonal
Brooks and both Sr and Jr Murdoch are up to their necks in corruption and crimes. Anyone who thinks the Murdochs didn't actually know and condone the phone hacking has to be brain dead
ReplyDeleteMs. Brooks has a new infant at home. She'll do whatever she can to stay home rather than go to jail. Get ready Rupert...your house is starting to crumble.
ReplyDeleteI have never seen a photo of her not looking like Medusa. I wonder if it is intentional.
ReplyDeleteI just watched this PBS Frontline about the investigation in the UK.
ReplyDeletePlease let it happen here, too!!
http://cove.kcpt.org/video/2215966370/
Please let it happen here, too!!
DeleteYES!
Sarah/Bristol type costume wearing activist azzclown paid hack.... FACT CHECK: ‘Non-Citizen’ Voter In James O’Keefe’s Voter Fraud Video Is Actually A Citizen
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/05/15/484462/james-o-keefe-voter-fraud-north-carolina/
I love Frontline's expose's. Through, factual, and unrelenting.
DeleteI hope this brings the empire down, a "butterfly effect" from across the pond to steamroll Fox News et al into oblivion.
Thanks for the link!
Wow, maximum penalty "life" but usually only 10 mos. served? That's quite a range of possibilities!
ReplyDeleteI don't know how the laws in the U.K. work in this regard, but would Brooks be able to take her new baby with her to gaol, or would she lose custody of her child? THAT could be a pretty damn big cudgel to get her to roll over on Murdoch.
ReplyDeleteThe cynic in me is just waiting for our Justice Department to pounce on Murdoch while he is vulnerable. If it happens basically from now until the election, it would effectively emasculate Rupert. FauxNews would be hamstrung. Any of their routine reflexively anti-Obama rhetoric would seem like just so much sour grapes. Any failure to address the very serious charges leveled at Murdoch would seem blatantly self serving. Either way, the charade of them calling themselves a "news" organization would be highlighted.
Additionally, I don't think a single Republican would come to Murdoch's aid. Two traits that the GOP steadfastly eschews are courage and fidelity. They would not only be likely to let him twist slowly in the wind on his own, some of the more loathsome Repubs would likely be at the head of the lynch mob.
Nobody in the GOP will want to be seen as being a vassal for an überfelon and none of them want to get sucked down in Murdoch's wake. Murdoch might be painfully surprised how little loyalty and friendship his millions have actually purchased.
I'm betting that Rupert is not sleeping real well these days.
Brooks is a real sycophant. She wormed her way into Murdock's empire and he ate up everything she served him. They developed a really weird relationship,(read the Vanity Fair article:http://www.vanityfair.comr/business/2012/02/rebekah-brooks-201202), she was "like a daughter" to him. I'd say its possible that Murdock senior kept Brooks in closer confidence then he did his son.
ReplyDeletePeople with personalities such as Brooks will serve the master until it is no longer advantageous to do so. When Murdock can no longer protect her, when her career is over, the 6 figure checks stop coming, when the shit hits the fan, she will sing. And loudly too. Brooks is ultimately all about her - and she's not going to do hard time for Murdock, not if she can help it.
That the relationship between Brooks and Murdoch is unusual is an understatement in the extreme. I still think that Brooks was/is one of Murdoch's concubines. They just seem WAY too cozy for a relationship that is only business.
DeleteHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHHAAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! One of Rupe's paid goons gets the chance to GO TO JAIL FOR THE OLD MAN !!!
ReplyDeleteNOT likely... Her hubby went to Eton where all the 'upper-crust' English do, and that's where her Hubby met the current PM (Cameron) of the UK... IF it looks like Brooks (either) may go to the Queens Tower for a few years, Cameron will step in at the English taxpayer expense and make this all go away... Rupe and his troopers have this wired... Rupe runs England... Just ask him...
I'll bet my nuts that Cameron is not "going to make this go away" no matter what fate awaits Murdoch. There is NO politician that wants to be seen coming to the aid of Murdoch. The public backlash would end ANY political career. Out of self preservation Murdoch's ersatz political pals will avoid him like the plague, at least in direct proportion to his degree of culpability in this sordid scandal.
DeleteNo way in hell is Cameron going to swoop in and rescue Murdoch. The scandal has already gone well beyond that possibility.
I'm with Gasman, but substitute "ovaries" for "testicles" in the bet.
DeleteHe invaded the wrong people's privacy, and there'll be hell to pay.
At one time, the politicians had a symbiotic relationship with the media empire, but they crossed the line with hacking people in high places, and that girl who was killed, causing the family to hold out hope she was alive because of the "pings" on her cell phone.
The "frontline" link a few threads up is well worth watching. The piranhas are out and Rupe's the blood in the water.
"Magda" will get hers, dutiful lieutenant that she is.
ReplyDeleteOn behalf of the entire city of Adelaide, South Oz, I sincerely apologise for the fact that Ruprick Murdork still calls this his hometown. Bleh.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE this post, and the comments rock!
ReplyDelete