Metropolitan Police role in the news media phone hacking scandal Prosecutions Ken Macdonald to review the emails newspaper executives had used as the basis of their claim that no one at "News of the World" but Clive Goodman had been involved in phone hacking. Macdonald immediately concluded there was evidence of criminal activity, including payments to serving police officers, leading the Met to open an investigation focused on bribery and corruption within its ranks. (See discussion of Operation Elveden, below.) On 4 July 2011, "The Guardian" published an article authored by Nick Davies and Amelia Hill titled "Missing Milly Dowler's voicemail was hacked by News of the World." This article
Metropolitan Police role in the news media phone hacking scandal that others, including Andy Coulson, were aware of Goodman's hacking or engaged in hacking themselves. H&L also served as counsel to the royal family at the time. On 29 May 2007, H&L's Lawrence Abramson sent the final draft of a letter whose text had negotiated between the law firm and its client to News International, stating that the review of the e-mails had found no such evidence. In his testimony to the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee on 19 July 2011, News International's James Murdoch claimed to have relied on this letter containing "outside legal advice from senior counsel”