FBI finds 'no hard evidence' of 9/11 phone hacking

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The FBI has found no hard evidence that the families of 9/11 victims had their phones hacked by the News of the World, according to the Wall Street Journal. News of the World publisher News Corporation, which also owns the Wall Street Journal, was under investigation by the FBI following allegations that it had hired a New York private detective to tap phones in the wake of the attacks.

Despite the lack of evidence, the FBI has reportedly widened its investigation to look into broader misconduct at News Corp's US subsidiaries.

The FBI refused to comment on the investigation.

The allegation that families of

9/11 victims had had their phones hacked

originated in the Daily Mirror, which cited unnamed sources in its report.

Peter King, a New York congressman and chairman of the homeland security committee, then wrote to the director of the FBI Robert Mueller to ask him to

open an investigation

.

A widened investigation may look at computer hacking, after it was alleged by a New Jersey marketing firm that News Corp staff had hacked into its website.

Floorgraphics claimed that News Corp-owned rival News America hacked its site after it turned down a takeover bid from Murdoch's company.

News Corp denied any hacking had taken place, and settled a legal action launched by Floorgraphics by agreeing to buy the firm for $29.5m (£18m).

There are currently two Metropolitan police investigations underway into criminality at the News of the World: Operation Weeting is investigating phone hacking and Operation Elveden is investigating allegations of payments to corrupt police officers.

There have been 12 arrests so far by the two groups of officers. The most high-profile of those include former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks former News of the World editor and Downing Street communications chief Andy Coulson . Les Hinton , a former News International chief executive who went to to head Murdoch's US Dow Jones company, resigned his post.

The scandal has also claimed a number of senior Met police officers, with commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson , assistant commissioner John Yates , and director of public affairs Dick Fedorcio resigning.