Man pleads not guilty to hacking celebrity e-mails

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A Florida man pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to hacking into e-mail accounts to access and distribute nude photos and other personal information of numerous celebrities including actress Scarlett Johansson.

Christopher Chaney, 35, of Jacksonville, Florida was arrested on October 12 after an 11-month investigation dubbed "Operation Hackerazzi" by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Chaney was charged with 26 counts of cyber-related crimes for hacking into e-mails of "The Avengers" star Johansson, along with actress Mila Kunis ("Black Swan") and singer Christina Aguilera. Other victims were identified only by their initials, which included B.P. and J.A., among them.

The photos of 26-year-old Johansson showed her topless and in a towel with an exposed backside. She revealed in a Vanity Fair magazine interview they were taken for her now ex-husband, actor Ryan Reynolds, when they were still married.

Leaked photos of Kunis showed her in a tub filled with bubbles, showing only her face.

The day after he was arrested, Chaney told a Jacksonville, Florida TV station that he became addicted to prying into the affairs of celebrities and apologized.

"I was almost relieved months ago when they (the FBI) came and took my computer ... because I didn't know how to stop, he told the TV station.

On Tuesday, a Los Angeles judge set a trial date of December 27 and freed Chaney on a $110,000 bond. He will be allowed to return home, but must wear a court monitoring device.

If convicted of all the crimes, Chaney faces up to 121 years in jail.

(Editing by Jill Serjeant)

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Fla. man charged in hacking case ordered to LA (AP)

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A Florida man charged with hacking into email accounts of celebrities including actress Scarlett Johansson was ordered Friday to appear in a Los Angeles courtroom Nov. 1.

A federal magistrate judge in Jacksonville, Fla., issued the order at a hearing for Christopher Chaney, 35. He faces a 26-count indictment in California that includes charges of identity theft, unauthorized computer access and wiretapping.

At a news conference several hours later, Chaney said he regretted what happened.

"I'm very sorry for all of this," Chaney said outside his attorney's Jacksonville office. "What I am most sorry about is I had to direct my mom into this."

Chaney's parents, Cathy and Jerry, agreed to supervise their son while he is free on $10,000 bail. At the direction of his attorney, Chaney didn't say much more at the news conference.

Chaney has not yet entered a plea, but his attorney told The Associated Press earlier Friday that he deeply regretted what had happened. Authorities say there were more than 50 victims, including actresses Mila Kunis and Renee Olstead and singer Christina Aguilera.

"At this point, he is extremely remorseful and sympathetic to the plight of the stars," said attorney Christopher Chestnut. "He is sorry that all of this is happening."

Chestnut said he wanted Chaney to undergo a psychological evaluation but he wouldn't comment on whether Chaney's psychological condition will play a role in his defense.

"Some of the facts vary," Chestnut said. "We have to get in and see what all the facts are. We can't really speak to all the facts since we don't know them. It's very early in the case."

Chaney has been ordered to stay away from computers and the Internet. He also must live with his parents until the case is resolved.

Chestnut described his client as a "quiet guy, a shy guy," who did clerical work in Jacksonville.

"This isn't a guy that Bill Gates would hire or that Google would recruit out to Silicon Valley," he said. "He's not an extremely sophisticated computer whiz."

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McCartney: I'm going to police over hacking claim (AP)

By RAPHAEL G. SATTER, Associated Press Raphael G. Satter, Associated Press – Thu Aug 4, 6:40 pm ET

LONDON – Former Beatle Paul McCartney said Thursday he would contact police over his ex-wife's claim that the couple had been spied upon by a British newspaper.

In comments to U.S. television journalists delivered via videolink from Cincinnati, Ohio, McCartney said that he would be in touch with law enforcement as soon as he was finished with his summer tour.

"I will be talking to them about that," McCartney told the Television Critics Association in Los Angeles.

"I don't think it's great. I do think it is a horrendous violation of privacy, and I do think it's been going on a long time, and I do think more people than we know knew about it. But I think I should just listen and hear what the facts are before I comment," he said.

McCartney is the latest celebrity to be dragged into Britain's phone hacking scandal, which centers on allegations that journalists routinely eavesdropped on private phone messages, bribed police officers for tips and illegally obtained confidential information for stories.

Until recently the scandal was largely been limited to the British arm of Rupert Murdoch's media empire, but an allegation made Wednesday by McCartney's former wife Heather Mills implicates the Trinity Mirror PLC group of newspapers, and CNN celebrity interviewer Piers Morgan, who once edited the group's flagship Daily Mirror tabloid.

Mills' allegation, made Wednesday in an interview with the BBC, was that a senior Mirror journalist admitted to her that his paper had been spying on her messages. While the broadcaster said that the unidentified man was not Piers Morgan, the former model's allegation echoes a claim Morgan himself made back in 2006 — a few months after the couple began divorce proceedings.

In an article published by the Daily Mail, Morgan said that he had been played a tape of a message McCartney had left on Mills' cell phone in the wake of one of their fights.

"It was heartbreaking," Morgan wrote. "He sounded lonely, miserable and desperate, and even sang 'We Can Work It Out' into the answerphone."

Questions over how Piers Morgan came to hear such a message have led several British lawmakers to call on him to return to the U.K. and explain himself.

Morgan has so far not offered comment on his article, although he did describe Mills' allegation as unsubstantiated and noted that the judge in the couple's divorce case had cast aspersions on her credibility.

He has repeatedly denied having ever ordered anyone to spy on others' voicemails, while his former newspaper group has insisted that it's journalists obey the law.

Mills' office on Thursday declined to elaborate on what she told the BBC, but said that the 43-year-old "looks forward to receiving Piers Morgan's answer as to how he knew the content of her private voicemail messages."

Several British parliamentarians have also said that Morgan has questions to answer — among them Conservative legislator Therese Coffey.

"I think it would help everybody, including himself and this investigation, if he was able to say more about why he wrote what he did in 2006," Coffey told the BBC Wednesday.

Morgan's publicist, Meghan McPartland, said that as far as she knew the CNN star — who is spending his summer working as a judge on "America's Got Talent" — was not returning to England to answer questions.

Morgan himself made light of the calls on his Twitter feed, saying he found it "so heartwarming that everyone in U.K.'s missing me so much they want me to come home."

In a separate development, the publisher of Britain's Daily Mail newspaper announced late Thursday that it was reviewing its editorial procedures. No reason for the review was given, but Morgan is one of many media veterans who've claimed that phone hacking and other shady practices were common across Britain's newspaper industry.

A similar review is already under way at the Mirror.

Associated Newspapers Ltd., which publishes the Daily Mail, the Mail on Sunday, and London's free Metro newspaper, said in a terse statement that Liz Hartley, the company's head of editorial legal services, would be among those working on the review.

Few other details were revealed, and Hartley did not return emails seeking further information.

___

Frazier Moore and Noaki Schwartz in Los Angeles and David Stringer and Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.

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McCartney's ex-wife accuses Mirror of phone hacking (AFP)

LONDON (AFP) – The ex-wife of Paul McCartney claimed Wednesday that a journalist at Britain's Mirror Group newspapers admitted hacking into her phone, dragging another tabloid into the long-running scandal.

Heather Mills told the BBC's Newsnight programme that the journalist made the admission in 2001 when he confronted her about an argument she had had with McCartney, who was then still her boyfriend.

Mills said the journalist rang her and "started quoting verbatim the messages from my machine".

"You've obviously hacked my phone and if you do anything with this story -- because they were obviously very private conversations about issues we were having as a couple -- and I said, then I'll go to the police," she challenged him.

She said the journalist responded saying: "OK, OK, yeah we did hear it on your voice messages, I won't run it."

Rupert Murdoch shut down his News of the World tabloid last month after it was revealed that private investigators working for the Sunday paper had hacked into the voicemail of a missing 13-year-old girl who was later found dead.

Former journalists at the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror have already claimed that phone hacking was widespread at their papers too, although Trinity Mirror has insisted its staff act within the law.

The Mirror Group comprises the Daily Mirror and the Sunday Mirror, the People, and Scotland's Daily Record and Sunday Mail, while its parent company, Trinity Mirror, owns more than 100 regional titles.

In a statement to the BBC on Wednesday, a spokesman for Trinity Mirror said: "Our position is clear. All our journalists work within the criminal law and the PCC (Press Complaints Commission) code of conduct."

The BBC did not identify the journalist, but confirmed that it was not Piers Morgan, who was editor of the Daily Mirror at the time and is now a celebrity talkshow host on US television network CNN.

However, the broadcaster said the message Mills refers to appears to be the same one which Morgan later admitted to listening to in a 2006 newspaper article.

Morgan has always denied hacking phones, ordering anyone to hack phones, or to his knowledge publishing stories obtained from phone hacking.

Conservative MP Therese Coffey, a member of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee investigating phone hacking, said Morgan should return to Britain to explain "very strong" new evidence.

"If Mr Morgan wants to come back to the UK and help them with their inquiries, and I don't mean being arrested in any way, I'm sure he can add more light," she told Newsnight on Wednesday.

"I don't see any point in him necessarily just staying in the US and issuing statements."

Morgan earlier issued a statement through CNN accusing Mills of intercepting voicemails herself.

"I have no knowledge of any conversation any executive from other newspapers at Trinity Mirror may or may not have had with Heather Mills," he said.

"What I can say and have knowledge of is that Sir Paul McCartney asserted that Heather Mills illegally intercepted his telephones, and leaked confidential material to the media."

Although the scandal has so far centred on the News of the World, where a royal editor and a private investigator were jailed in 2007, there is growing evidence that other newspapers may have used the practice.

Trinity Mirror launched an internal review into its editorial practices last month, although it stressed this was not in response to any specific allegation.

McCartney and Mills divorced in 2008.

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Prince William 'confronted' Murdoch execs on hacking (AFP)

LONDON (AFP) – Prince William expressed disappointment to two of Rupert Murdoch's top executives that no one from the media tycoon's empire apologised for hacking his aides' phones, a report said Saturday.

During a lunch meeting in January, the British prince admonished Rupert Murdoch's son James and Rebekah Brooks, who were at the time both executives in Murdoch's British newspaper wing News International, The Times newspaper said.

William, second in line to the throne, reportedly said he was disappointed that no one from the publisher of the now defunct News of the World tabloid contacted him to apologise after his aides' voice messages were intercepted.

During the meal at a five-star hotel in north Wales, the prince is reported to have said that "it would have been nice if someone at the time had apologised."

Brooks, who resigned as News International chief executive this month amid the hacking scandal, and James Murdoch, chairman of News International, both said sorry during the meal, the report said.

A source quoted in the paper added James Murdoch was shocked no apology had already been offered.

The meal, which was organised by royal officials to build relations with the press, was "largely friendly", The Times said.

The original police investigation into phone hacking in 2006 centred on illegal interception of voicemail messages of royal officials.

The News of the World's royal editor and a private investigator were jailed in 2007 for hacking into the phones of members of the royal household.

The paper maintained for several years that the hacking was the work of a "rogue reporter" but it has emerged since that the practice was more widespread.

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CNN's Piers Morgan denies role in UK hacking scandal (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – CNN talk show host and former News of the World editor Piers Morgan on Tuesday angrily denied claims by a British lawmaker that he had taken part in phone hacking during his years as a journalist in Britain.

Morgan, who hosts the U.S. nightly talk and current affairs show "Piers Morgan Tonight," said he may have been a victim of hacking but that he had never hacked a phone himself.

"That MP (member of parliament) just claimed I boasted in my book of using phone-hacking for a scoop," Morgan said on Twitter during Tuesday's hearing by a British parliamentary panel in London on the scandal engulfing newspapers in Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation empire.

"Complete nonsense. Just read the book," Morgan tweeted. "I've never hacked a phone, told anyone to hack a phone, or published any stories based on the hacking of a phone."

Morgan, who edited the now-defunct News of The World in 1994-1995, was responding to remarks by British MP Louise Mensch at Tuesday's televised grilling of Rupert and James Murdoch, which was seen around the world.

Mensch stated that Morgan had boasted in his 2005 book "The Insider: The Private Diaries of a Scandalous Decade" of having won a scoop for his Daily Mirror tabloid newspaper by using a code to gain entry into another person's cell phone.

Morgan said Mensch had got her facts mixed up.

In the book, he wrote that he suspected he was a victim of phone hacking. "I wrote in my book that someone warned me phones could be hacked, so I changed my pin number."

Morgan, who said little during the first two weeks of the phone hacking scandal in Britain, said on his show on Monday that he did not believe that any story published in either the News of The World or The Daily Mirror under his editorship was obtained by unlawful means.

He also defended Rupert Murdoch, saying that he found it "impossible, personally knowing the man, to believe that he would have known about law-breaking on his newspapers, let alone would he condone it."

Morgan, 46, also worked on Murdoch's daily newspaper The Sun between 1989-94 before moving to The News of the World and then The Daily Mirror in London from 1995-2004.

He took over veteran Larry King's slot on CNN in January 2011 and is also a judge on the TV show "America's Got Talent".

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant. Editing by Peter Bohan)

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Piers Morgan seeks apology over phone hacking claim (AFP)

LOS ANGELES (AFP) – Former British tabloid editor Piers Morgan has demanded an apology from a lawmaker who made claims about him admitting to phone hacking, at the London hearing which quizzed Rupert Murdoch.

In an angry on-air exchange, Morgan, who is now a celebrity interviewer for US television news network CNN, challenged Member of Parliament Louise Mensch to repeat her claim that he had "boasted" of phone hacking in a book about his tabloid editor days.

She declined to do so, saying she had been covered by parliamentary privilege -- which protects her from legal action for anything said inside parliament -- a protection which does not apply if she repeats the words elsewhere.

In the committee hearing which grilled Murdoch and his son James over the phone hacking scandal rocking the tycoon's media empire, Mensch said Morgan had boasted about using a phone hacking "little trick" to win a scoop of the year award.

"That is a former editor of the Daily Mirror being very open about his personal use of phone hacking," she said in the hearing.

But Morgan, a former editor of the Mirror and of Murdoch's now-shuttered News of the World, said he had never claimed to have used phone hacking himself in his 2005 book "The Insider: The Private Diaries of a Scandalous Decade."

"I'm amused by her cowardice in refusing to repeat that allegation now that shes not in parliament covered by privilege," Morgan said in the on-air exchange with Mensch, who was in London.

"She came out with an absolute blatant lie during those proceedings. At no stage in my book or indeed outside of my book have I ever boasted of using phone hacking for any stories."

And he added: "For the record, in my time at the Mirror and the News of the World I have never hacked a phone, told anybody to hack a phone or published any story based on the hacking of a phone."

In an increasingly tetchy exchange, during which Mensch said Morgan was a rich man and accused him of threatening her, the former newspaperman added: "I think you should apologize for being a liar."

He repeatedly bashed her for invoking parliamentary privilege and said Mensch should "show some balls" and repeat her claims outside the hearing.

Asking her to produce evidence to back her claim, he said: "If there is no evidence for that, are you going to publicly apologize to me, and to CNN right now for such an outrageous lie?"

"I feel no need whatsoever to apologize," said the lawmaker.

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Murdoch tabloid Sun denies Jude Law hacking claim (AP)

LONDON – Jude Law is taking legal action against The Sun newspaper, claiming the Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid hacked into voice mails for stories about his private life.

Murdoch's News International strongly denies the claim, accusing the actor of "a deeply cynical and deliberately mischievous attempt" to drag The Sun into the hacking scandal that has brought down its sister paper, the News of the World.

In a statement Friday, News International said Law's allegations "have no foundation whatsoever" and vowed to vigorously fight his claim.

Law's law firm, Atkins Thomson, declined to give details of the claim, which it said "will be considered by the court in due course."

Law is also suing the News of the World. That case is due to be heard next year.

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Hugh Grant says police want talk to him on hacking (AP)

LONDON – Actor Hugh Grant says police have asked him to testify at an inquiry into allegations that a tabloid newspaper hacked into the phones of newsmakers, including celebrities and a murder victim.

The actor has often claimed he believes his phone was hacked by News of the World. He told Sky News on Wednesday that he was happy to work with police but also backed calls for an independent inquiry.

Grant wrote an article in The New Statesman earlier this year revealing that he secretly taped a conversation with former News of the World journalist Paul McMullan, who admitted that the tabloid employed people to hack into mobile phones.

The scandal has accelerated this week, raising calls for executives at News Corp., which owns the paper, to resign.

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Jude Law joins News Corp phone hacking claimants (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) – British film star Jude Law will sue the News of the World over allegations of phone hacking next year in a case to set guidelines over damages and which could involve senior management at the tabloid.

A judge hearing the case into phone hacking at the best-selling tabloid, part of Rupert Murdoch's media empire, selected Law and four others to act as lead cases in a trial which will begin in January next year.

The judge said it was crucial to establish how widespread phone hacking was at the newspaper and the degree of senior management involvement, as this could influence the level of any damages awarded.

Law's case was included because it covers allegations of harassment, resulted in numerous stories and his disclosures had pointed to a senior executive at the newspaper, his lawyers said. Lawyers for the newspaper said they were unaware of this.

A clutch of celebrities, politicians and sports personalities are suing publisher News International, a unit of News Corp, for violating their privacy by eavesdropping on their voicemail to unearth scandals to sell more newspapers.

The lead cases will establish principles for the others and eliminate the need for each one to be heard separately.

SENIOR INVOLVEMENT

Judge Geoffrey Vos said it was also important to understand to what extent the newspaper's motivation was to uncover news by a single journalist and to what extent it was about increasing profits for the paper by selling more copies.

"Those are important questions as to exactly what was going on. To set the damages you need to know exactly what happened," Vos told a case-management hearing in a London court.

The claimants say there was a "grand conspiracy" at the newspaper, meaning that illegal voicemail interception was standard practice and widely known about.

News International denies this, although it has admitted some liability and offered compensation to a few of the claimants. Actress Sienna Miller, Law's ex-girlfriend, accepted a payout of 100,000 pounds ($162,700) last week.

The scandal comes at a time when News Corp is pursuing a planned $14 billion takeover of UK pay-TV firm BSkyB.

News International also owns the Times of London, while BSkyB owns popular 24-hour news channel Sky News and critics have claimed the deal would give the company too much influence over public opinion. News Corp has offered to spin off Sky News into an independent company if the deal goes ahead.

Ripples from the scandal at Britain's best-selling Sunday tabloid have spread up to Prime Minister David Cameron's office.

Andy Coulson, who resigned as editor of the paper in 2007 after a reporter was jailed for phone-hacking, was later hired by Cameron as his spokesman but resigned from that job earlier this year after the investigation was reopened.

The court decided on Friday on four other lead cases in addition to Law's: those of soccer agent Sky Andrew, designer Kelly Hoppen, who is Miller's stepmother, sports pundit Andy Gray, and opposition Labour Party parliamentarian Chris Bryant.

(Reporting by Kate Holton; writing by Georgina Prodhan)

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