U.S. senators call for DOJ, SEC probe into News Corp

WASHINGTON, July 13 (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday called for the Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate whether News Corp (NWSA.O) broke a U.S. law banning payments to influence a foreign official.

Senators Barbara Boxer and John Rockefeller have requested that Attorney General Eric Holder and SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro look into a potential violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act following the telephone hacking scandal at one of News Corp's British newspapers.

"The reported allegations against News Corporation are very serious and indicate potentially thousands of victims and a pattern of illegal activity. It is important to ensure that no United States laws were broken and no United States citizens were victimized," the senators wrote in a letter to Holder and Schapiro.

The senators also called on authorities to investigate reports that phone records of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks had illegally been accessed by News Corp. (Reporting by Jasmin Melvin, editing by Maureen Bavdek)