NEW YORK, July 14 (Reuters) - With News Corp's legal issues mounting, the company on Wednesday hired top white-collar defense attorney Brendan Sullivan Jr., according to a source with knowledge of the situation.

Sullivan, a senior partner at Williams & Connolly in Washington D.C., is one of the most prominent corporate defense attorneys in the United States. He represented U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, now deceased, in a 2008 corruption case that was dismissed due to prosecutorial misconduct. In March, Washington Mutual former-chief executive Kerry Killinger hired Sullivan to defend him against claims brought by the FDIC involving risky loans. In addition, Sullivan represented Broadcom co-founder Henry Nicholas, who was charged with options backdating. Those charges were dismisseocrats and Republicans must lock arms together in the days ahead and take real action to stop the spending binge that has put our nation in economic jeopardy." (Additional reporting by Andy Sullivan and Steve Holland; Editing by Paul Simao)