Piers Morgan To Testify On Phone Hacking To Leveson Next Week

Piers Morgan is due to testify on phone hacking at the official inquiry on the ethics and practices of the British press next week.

Morgan's spokesperson confirmed that the CNN host will appear before the Levenson inquiry the week of December 19, though the specific date has not been announced yet. The British blogger Guido Fawkes reported the news on Thursday.

Morgan has long been the subject of speculation that he may have known about phone hacking at the News of the World, and later the Daily Mirror. He has emphatically denied having anything to do with phone hacking, but rumors that phone hacking took place at the Daily Mirror persist. Heather Mills also alleged that a journalist from the same publishing group that owns the Daily Mirror hacked her phone while Morgan was editor of the tabloid -- a charge that he saucily rebuffed.

While no hard evidence against Morgan has surfaced, he previously admitted to knowing how phone hacking works, and acknowledged that phone hacking could have happened at the Daily Mirror without his knowledge.