Quelle surprise!: Murdoch's NewsCorp published bogus email slandering Australian (liberal) govt.

[marmar]

AP:



Police say e-mail in Australian scandal was forged
By ROD McGUIRK – 12 hours ago


CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Police said Monday that an e-mail challenging Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's honesty in his 19-month-old government's biggest political crisis appeared to be a forgery.

The finding greatly relieves pressure on Rudd, whose government has been accused of providing favors for political friends.

The police investigation began over the weekend, when newspapers published an e-mail purported to be from a Rudd adviser asking a Treasury official to give priority to a credit application by the prime minister's friend, car dealer John Grant.

Opposition lawmakers said the e-mail was proof that Rudd misled Parliament when he said his office did not help Grant in his quest for a government loan.

Detectives on Monday examined computers at Treasury offices and at the Canberra home of the Treasury official, Godwin Grech, who manages a government fund established to help financially distressed car dealers, police said in a statement.

Grech claimed last week that the prime minister's office had first drawn his attention to Grant's application for credit from the 2 billion Australian dollar ($1.6 billion) fund.

Rudd and Treasurer Wayne Swan denied that was true.

Grech told a Senate inquiry on Friday that he was first alerted to Grant's case by an e-mail from Rudd's office, but he said he could find no record of that e-mail and conceded that his recollection could be wrong.

On Saturday, News Corp. newspapers in Australia published the e-mail, which the government called a fake. The government asked police to mount a fraud investigation. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h1zxHOd-oe4SMp8saEJXfPs4UWewD98VM7VO3

[Uncle Joe]

1. I wonder if Murdoch's Newscorpse did more than just publish it? n/t

[marmar]

2. Quite (or likely) possibly.