PIERS MORGAN FACES NEW QUESTIONS RE PHONE HACKING

James Hipwell, a former writer for the London Daily Mirror, has claimed that writers for that tabloid also engaged in telephone hacking when it was edited by Piers Morgan, the CNN host and America’s Got Talent judge. “It was seen as a bit of a wheeze — something that was slightly underhand but something many of them did. What a laugh,” Hipwell told the London Independent. Morgan has repeatedly denied any knowledge of phone hacking at the Mirror while he edited the paper, and Trinity Mirror, which publishes the newspaper, issued a statement today maintaining that its “journalists work within the criminal law and the [Press Complaints Commission’s] code of conduct. Hipwell’s motives for coming forth now may not be above suspicion. In 2006 he was convicted of purchasing low-priced stocks, recommending them to readers via his financial column in the Mirror, then selling them when their value soared.