Looks Like Top GOP Staffer For Sen Grassley Covered Up "Smoking Gun" Evidence Of News Corp's Hacking

[kpete]

Did A Top GOP Staffer For Sen. Grassley Cover Up Evidence Of News Corp Hacking In The U.S.?
By Lee Fang on Sep 6, 2011 at 1:50 pm
A News Corp. whistleblower allegedly gave sensitive documents to Grassley's Senate Finance investigator

A top investigator for the Senate Finance Committee, working under Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), may have had smoking gun evidence of News Corp’s hacking activity. While News Corp’s British subsidiaries have received the most media attention for systematically hacking the cell phone and personal records of private citizens, the public still has heard little of allegations relating to similar conduct perpetrated by News Corp against its American competitors. ThinkProgress has learned that not only did a sensitive tip come to Grassley’s office about News Corp’s cyber attacks against other American companies, but authorities may have failed to look into the matter partially because a staffer named Nick Podsiadly allegedly never followed through on his promise to the whistleblower.

In December 2006, Robert Emmel, an account executive in News Corp’s profitable marketing division called News America Marketing, mailed Grassley’s office a 58-page document detailing News Corp’s unfair business practices. News America Marketing had won incredibly lucrative contracts away from a New Jersey-based firm called Floorgraphics not too long after Floorgraphics caught someone with a News Corp I.P. address illegally accessing password-protected information on the company’s computer system. As critics have pointed out, the alleged hacking attempts by News America Marketing seem to mirror information-stealing tactics used by News Corp’s British newspapers, including the now-defunct News of the World tabloid.

In 2006, Grassley was chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Emmel had gone to the committee looking for help. According to court filings, Grassley investigative staffer Nick Podsiadly had spoken with Emmel and told him that the committee would consider its own inquiry into the matter or he would refer the documents to the Justice Department. Podsiadly was Emmel’s best hope. After he submitted the sensitive information about his employer to the Senate Finance Committee, Emmel signed a non-disclosure agreement with News Corp, and was dismissed from the company the following month. News Corp unleashed a slew of lawyers against Emmel, which eventually forced the man into bankruptcy. As the New York Times has reported, News Corp more or less extinguished allegations of corporate espionage with $655 million in various settlements and buy-outs to competitors. (In-store marketing companies Valassis and Insignia claimed that News Corp had used similar tactics against them.)

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A spokeswoman for the finance committee said nothing would be done with any documents sent by Emmel until the litigation over them had ended. Emmel today remains under a court-imposed injunction that forbids him from disclosing anything from these documents. “I cannot comment,” he said.

the rest:
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/09/06/300323/exclusive-questions-surround-grassley-staffer-given-whistleblower-tip-regarding-news-corp-hacking-scandal/

[Bluzmann57]

1. Grassley is a piece of shit

Makes me almost ashamed to be an Iowan, even though I've never voted for him.
Grassley and king. What a pair. Arrrrgggghhhhh!!!!!!!!!

[DJ13]

2. Why would he give the info to a Republican?

That almost guaranteed it would be covered up.

[progressoid]

4. That was my first thought too.

Make me wonder if something else is going on here.

[DontTreadOnMe]

3. Off to the Greatest +1

everyone needs to read this

[pacalo]

5. Surely Mr. Emmel kept a copy of the 58-page document. Send a copy to Max Baucus, the current

chairman, then hound Baucus until action is taken. Since Grassley is no longer chairman & there IS no litigation going on, why is Emmel bound from commenting?