LONDON — Lawyers and former executives have cast fresh doubt on the denials made by Rupert and James Murdoch over Britain’s phone hacking scandal, raising the prospect that the media tycoon’s son could be recalled for a new grilling by U.K. legislators.

In written testimony released by lawmakers Tuesday, former Murdoch lieutenants poked holes in the dramatic testimony delivered by their ex-bosses before Parliament last month, accusing them of misrepresentations, exaggerations and more.

Claims made by the Murdochs carried “serious inaccuracies,” ex-News International lawyer Jonathan Chapman said in a letter to the House of Commons’ media committee, rejecting the idea that the two had been kept in the dark by subordinates.

“Nobody kept Mr. James Murdoch or any other News International/News Corporation executives from being in full possession of the facts,” he said.

Other former executives contradicted James Murdoch’s assertion that he hadn’t been aware of a critical piece of evidence implying that illegal eavesdropping had been far more widespread than News International had claimed.

The evidence, contained in an email apparently addressed to a senior News of the World reporter, appeared to rip apart the company’s claim that the illegal espionage campaign was limited to former royal editor Clive Goodman, who’d already been jailed over the practice.

James Murdoch told lawmakers he wasn’t aware of the email at the time, but his former legal adviser Tom Crone said that he’d specifically flagged it during a brief meeting in June 2008.

Some of the most scathing attacks on Rupert Murdoch came from his former law firm, Harbottle & Lewis, which accused his company of misusing its legal advice.

The firm said it was asked to perform a narrow review of emails at the News of the World following an employment claim made by Goodman, who’d lost his job after pleading guilty to phone hacking in 2007.

Both Murdochs presented this as evidence that Harbottle & Lewis had thoroughly vetted the paper — which the firm rejected.

“There was absolutely no question of the firm being asked to provide News International with a clean bill of health,” the law firm said in a statement.

 

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