What the?? From The New York Times:
Mr. Blair, the former prime minister of Britain, offered to act as an “unofficial adviser” to Mr. Murdoch and to Rebekah Brooks, the former head of Mr. Murdoch’s British newspaper empire, who is one of eight defendants in the case and is expected to give evidence for the first time on Thursday.
In a one-hour phone conversation less than a week before Ms. Brooks was first arrested in July 2011, Mr. Blair told her to “keep strong” and take sleeping pills, according to an email in which she relayed the conversation to Mr. Murdoch’s son James. The email was read out by the prosecution in court on Wednesday.
The email from Ms. Brooks to James Murdoch, dated July 11, 2011, said Mr. Blair “is available for you, K.R.M.” — shorthand for Mr. Murdoch senior — “and me as an unofficial adviser, but needs to be between us.”
“It will pass,” Mr. Blair told her, according to the email, advising her to commission an independent inquiry, “Hutton-style.” The 2004 Hutton report cleared the Blair government of wrongdoing over its handling of intelligence about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. He even suggested the name of an outside lawyer, Ken Macdonald, “a great and good type,” the email read. On July 15 of that year, Ms. Brooks resigned from News International, the umbrella company covering the Murdoch newspapers in Britain, and on July 17, she was arrested.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
As if it weren't bad enough that Blair went along with Dubya's disastrous Iraq misadventure, now he's giving counsel to the primary bad actors in the Hackgate scandal. There is surely a special place in Hell for this kind of villainy. Blech.
Update 1:
From the comments, AnnetteK has found a BBC article that contains the entire email from Rebekah Brooks to James Murdoch. Here it is, in it's entirety:
"Only got ten minutes before I see Charlie for confiscation!
But I had an hour on the phone to Tony Blair.
He said:
1. Form an independent unit that has a outside junior council, ken macdonald, a great and good type, a serious forensic criminal barrister, internal counsel, proper fact checkers etc in it. Get them to investigate me and others and publish a hutton style report.
2. Publish part one of the report at same time as the police closes its inquiry and clear you and accept short comings and new solutions and process and part two when any trials are over.
3. Keep strong and definitely sleeping pills. Need to have clear heads and remember no rash short term solutions as they only give you long term headaches.
4. It will pass. Tough up.
5. He is available for you, KRM and me as an unofficial adviser but needs to be between us.
He is sending more notes later."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/...