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For The Washington Post 
14h ago
Karla Adam
London – Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, said an investigation into how a British tabloid obtained personal data on the Duchess shows that “predatory practices” still exist within the British media.
His statement follows an investigation by Byline Investigates into how the Sun tabloid hired an American private investigator, who says he illegally handed over personal data about the Duchess when he began dating Harry. Byline Investigates partnered with the BBC and the New York Times to publish the investigation report Thursday night.
Daniel Hanks, 74, a veteran private investigator also known as “Danno,” said he illegally accessed details about Meghan, including her social security number, as well as details about people in her life. He says he sold this information to the sun.
In a statement, the Sun editor said he had made a “legitimate” request for information from Hanks, emphasizing that he was not asked to do “anything illegal or violate any privacy laws.”
A spokesperson for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex said that “today is an important time of reflection for the media industry and society at large, as this investigative report shows that the predatory practices of days gone by continue. , reaping irreversible damage to families and relationships. “
Harry and Meghan have long had a strained relationship with the British tabloids. Harry recently told talk show host James Corden that the British tabloids were “destroying my sanity.”
“I was, like, this is toxic,” he said. “So, I did what any husband and father would do. I need to get my family out of here.”
READ MORE: Prince Harry opens up to James Corden about why he moved to Los Angeles
Meghan once told ITV that she was warned, prior to her marriage, that “the British tabloids will destroy your life.” The couple have taken legal action against the tabloids on several occasions. Meghan recently won a privacy case against the Mail on Sunday, which published extensive excerpts from a handwritten letter she wrote to her estranged father.
Hanks told The Washington Post in a telephone interview that he did not know who Meghan Markle was when she said that The Sun’s US editor, James Beal, commissioned the investigation.
On October 30, 2016, the Sun asked him to search for Meghan, her family and associates, he said. You accessed a database that you can use for the legitimate work of a private investigator.
He released information including Meghan’s social security number, her cell phone number, address, details about her mother Doria Ragland, her estranged father Thomas Markle, and her half-brother, also named Thomas Markle, her ex-husband Trevor Engelson, and others.
“Social security numbers are key for the kingdom to get everything,” he said.
On November 8, 2016, Harry released a remarkable statement, officially announcing that he was in a relationship with Meghan and condemning the coverage of her in some parts of the media.
Hanks is a well-known private investigator who says he has worked for the British tabloid press for years. He says he has worked for law enforcement agencies, the American tabloid television shows “A Current Affair” and “Hard Copy,” and helped track down information on stories about Jeffrey Epstein. Hanks has also served various jail terms; most recently, in 2017, he was convicted of extortion and spent 16 months in jail.
There was a time, he said, when his main clients were the British tabloid press. Before the 2011 phone hacking scandal that rocked the UK establishment and led to the closure of Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World tabloid, Hanks said he earned about $ 120,000 a year from British tabloids. Later, he said, the only British newspaper to hire him was the tabloid Sun. Hanks said he was forced to sign a letter saying he would not do anything illegal.
“They protect superiors like the publisher, they protect themselves,” he said.
“They sent me a letter, the editors did it, saying, ‘You will no longer use anything illegal, blah, blah, blah, to do your job,’ but then the reporters who worked for them said, ‘Look, I have to do a living here, I need to get these things, don’t worry about that disclaimer. We need to get these reports if you want to keep working, ‘”Hanks said.
He said that he now regrets his actions and that watching the two-hour interview Meghan and Harry did with Oprah Winfrey “really made me feel bad, I don’t like hurting anyone.”
“There is more to me than tabloid journalism,” he said. “I’m not just a guy who worked for the tabloids, I did other things, I did good things, I did bad things, but I’m not a bad guy.” He said he was speaking to help clear his conscience.
Graham Johnson, editor of Byline Investigates, an online publication that focuses on British media organizations, approached Hanks 18 months ago. In the spring, she flew to Los Angeles to meet Hanks, and together they went through her files and discovered that she had conducted background checks and searches for British newspapers on several high-profile people, including Meghan. “They didn’t mean anything to me at the time,” Hanks said.
Johnson told The Post he ran “a test run” with Hanks to see what the “allowed” and “not allowed” searches would reveal.
“We did a test, whereby we did an ‘allowable search’ of information that would be used for a newspaper story and that it came back, when you write ‘Meghan Markle,’ you get nine pages,” Johnson said. “Then we did a ‘no search allowed’, it was not allowed because we were misleading the database by pretending it was in the official public interest. It came back like 90 pages.”
In an affidavit he signed for Byline Investigates, Hanks writes: “Over the years, I have sold personal data obtained from a variety of ‘unique databases’ to British newspapers.” He continues: “Under federal law, it is illegal to obtain this information with permission for an authorized use and then sell it to a British newspaper. Such a sale is obviously an illegal use.”
Johnson said this case “shows that these things were still happening five years after the Leveson Inquiry,” referring to the public inquiry into British media practices. “Most importantly, it took place on American soil,” he said.
News Group Newspapers, the publishers of the Sun newspaper, said in an emailed statement: “In 2016, The Sun made a legitimate request to Mr. Hanks to investigate the contact details and addresses of Meghan Markle and potential family members using databases. legal data he was licensed to use He was paid $ 250.
“Mr. Hanks was not tasked with doing anything illegal or violating any privacy laws; in fact, he was clearly ordered in writing to act legally and signed a legal commitment that he would.
“The information he provided could not and did not raise any concern that he had used illegal practices to obtain the information.
“At no time did The Sun ask for Meghan Markle’s social security number, nor did it use the information she provided for any illegal practices.”
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