Three more Democratic senators have joined West Virginia Senator Jay Rockefeller's call for an investigation into News Corp.'s dealings in the United States and whether the News of the World phone hacks may have violated American laws.

Along with Rockefeller, Barbara Boxer and Frank Lautenberg sent "two separate letters" to the Justice Department and the SEC in which they "raised questions about possible violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, an antibribery law that U.S. authorities have enforced with vigor in recent years," according to The Wall Street Journal. ProPublica's Jake Bernstein previously explained how bribes to U.K. cops would have violated this law.

CNN noted that New Jersey's Robert Menendez "also wrote to [Attorney General Eric]Holder, asking him to examine whether journalists working for Murdoch tapped into the phones of the victims of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks." Rockefeller, the Senate Commerce Chairman, told the network yesterday that he was considering launching his own investigation into the matter.

Late Wednesday afternoon, New York Rep. Peter King became the first Republican member of Congress to back an investigation in a letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller, which Politico has in full. "It is revolting," King writes, "to imagine that members of the media would seek to compromise the integrity of a public official for financial gain in the pursuit of yellow journalism."

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Ray Gustini