Justice Dept. Drops News Corp. Probe

The U.S. Department of Justice said Monday it will not prosecute Rupert Murdoch’s company over a phone-hacking scandal and alleged bribery of public officials in the U.K. News Corp., a U.S. company that controls brands including The Wall Street Journal and Fox News, was at the center of a hacking scandal that led to its Sunday tabloid the News of the World to close in 2011. The Justice Department said it was not pursuing charges and ending its investigation into whether News Corp. broke anti-corruption laws, but reserved the right to reopen an inquiry if new information came to light. Several News of the World journalists have been prosecuted in the U.K. over alleged phone-tapping of public and private figures as well as paying off public officials for news leads. The FBI had combed through thousands of emails on News Corp. servers, looking for evidence of possible violations of U.S. law, the BBC reports.