Dinner at Rupert's

(page 2 of 3)

The far side of the living room opened onto a balcony with a stunning view of Green Park. Off in another direction was the dining room with a large rectangular table. The assembled executives fragmented into smaller groups, cradling their drinks and wandering around the room and onto the balcony to take in the fresh air.

Brooks was typically at the center of any small gathering involving Murdoch, but as the other executives mingled, she and Sullivan migrated to a corner of the balcony. According to one observer, Sullivan spoke to her sternly, reminding her not to hold anything back from him. Brooks returned from the tête-à-tête looking slightly shaken.

When it was time to sit down for the meal, everyone took assigned positions. Murdoch sat in the middle of the long table, flanked by Klein and Sullivan. Directly across from him was Brooks, and next to her was James. At one end of the table sat Jacobs, Palker, and Carey. At the other end sat Lewis, Greenberg, and John Villa, Sullivan’s right-hand man from Williams & Connolly. Before the group could settle into their chairs, Brooks expressed mild embarrassment at being in the prime position, even though she had arranged the seating personally. She turned to Carey and coyly insisted that he switch seats with her. Carey demurred. She made the same offer to Jacobs, who also declined.

As the meal began, Murdoch laid out the ground rules for the company’s legal strategy, according to people at the dinner. “This is going to be handled by Joel and Brendan,” Murdoch said. “I will handle the board.” Then, in a growl, he added: “Everyone else stay out of it.”

Over steak, Klein introduced Sullivan. “Rebekah is innocent,” Sullivan told the guests. The attorney, who rose to fame by defending Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North in the Iran-Contra hearings in the 1980s, cited his long experience dealing with individuals accused of wrongdoing. Based on his conversations with Brooks and his preliminary review of the evidence at hand, he continued, criminal charges against her would not be warranted. Sullivan outlined the game plan he was recommending to the company. The most important aspect was that Rupert and James Murdoch be kept at arm’s length from the scandal, he said. The matter would be run by the News International team in London, an effort headed by Brooks.

As the flinty, spectacled Washington lawyer spoke, Brooks watched him intently, appearing to follow his every word. At the far end of the table, Jacobs slumped in his chair. Despite his history advising Murdoch, his counsel in this matter had been ignored. The next day, Murdoch boarded his corporate Boeing 737, along with his New York team and the Williams & Connolly lawyers, for the trip back home. Jacobs later lamented to a friend that he felt like someone who was made of “cellophane” during the trans-Atlantic flight. Klein, Sullivan, and others kept passing back and forth in front of him discussing legal issues as if he weren’t there. Two weeks later, Jacobs resigned his post with News Corp.

Over the next month, Brooks led the efforts of an internal “management and standards committee,” comprising Lewis, Greenberg, and Palker, which would respond to specific police requests for information while not actively searching for any evidence of wrongdoing. The short-term goal following the dinner was for the committee to reconstruct a file of some 2,500 internal e-mails gathered in 2007 and have them reviewed by an outside expert, presented to News Corp.’s board of directors, and then handed over to Scotland Yard.

On June 16, Murdoch hosted a party at the Orangery in Kensington Gardens, an annual affair that he usually scheduled around News Corp.’s London board meeting, and attended by Prime Minister David Cameron and opposition leader Ed Miliband. It also seemed like a pre-party for News Corp.’s bid for 100 percent control of BSkyB, or British Sky Broadcasting Group, the largest pay-TV company in the U.K. and Ireland—a deal that was mere days from final approval. (News Corp. already held—and still holds—a 39 percent controlling stake in BSkyB, which has a market capitalization of approximately $20 billion.) A sudden lightning storm drove the revelers inside at one point, the only blemish on a splendid evening.