The FBI has launched a preliminary review of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation to determine whether employees or associates of the company hacked into the voicemails of 9/11 victims, survivors and their families. The allegations are the latest in the widening phone hacking scandal involving News Corp., which began with the company's News of the World newspaper.

"We are doing this based on their requests," said an anonymous FBI source. "But after reviewing the letters and their allegations, and after consultation with the U.S. attorney's office in New York, we are proceeding."

According to CNN: "Because the investigation just began, it's too early to say when the first interviews will be conducted, the source said. New York Rep. Peter T. King, a Republican, earlier this week asked FBI Director Robert Mueller to investigate the possibility that journalists working for Murdoch may have tapped into the phones of 9/11 victims and relatives."

"If these allegations are proven true," Congressman King wrote in a letter to FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, "the conduct would merit felony charges for attempting to violate various federal statutes related to corruption of public officials and prohibitions against wiretapping. Any person found guilty of this purported conduct should receive the harshest sanctions available under law."

On Thursday during an interview with News Corp. owned Wall Street Journal, Murdoch said his company is handling the ongoing crisis "extremely well in every way possible," and has made just "minor mistakes." Murdoch's comments are the first significant one's he has made since the phone scandal engulfed the media mogul's empire.

The Telegraph reported: