Attorney General Eric Holder plans to tell families of victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks at an upcoming meeting that he is taking “seriously” allegations News Corporation reporters tried to hack the phones some victims.
“I’ll certainly want to hear what they have to say with regard to their concerns and, to the extent that I can share information with them, I will,” Holder said at a Wednesday press conference, Reuters reported.
“I will try to reassure them that this is something we are taking seriously,” he added.
Holder agreed last week to an Aug. 24 meeting with victims’ families to discuss allegations first reported by London’s Daily Mirror that journalists from the Rupert Murdoch-owned News of the World tabloid paper asked a private detective in New York to try to collect information from the phones of victims of the 2001 attacks.
The FBI launched an investigation soon after the report emerged, as victims’ families and several members of Congress called for an official probe.
Jim Riches, whose 29-year-old firefighter son was killed at the World Trade Center, told The Associated Press last week that he plans to attend the meeting because “we want to find out if anyone’s phones were hacked, the progress of the investigation and what they intend to do if they find somebody accountable.”
