Zuckerberg meets US lawmakers in secret before public showdown as Facebook is hit by fresh scandal

Founder and CEO if Facebook Zuckerberg is trying to earn some 'likes' from lawmakers, after meeting privately Monday with some of those who will question him on the firm's privacy scandal later this week.

The secret Monday meetings come in advance of Zuckerberg's Tuesday testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee and Wednesday before a joint hearing with the Senate Judiciary and Commerce panels.

The closed-door meetings run through Monday afternoon and include some of the members who will question Zuckerberg, Reuters reported.

The world's fifth richest man is being coached by a team of experts and a former George W. Bush aide about how to handle lawmakers waiting for the chance to interrupt him or bash Facebook's security practices.

He has retained a team from the top law firm WilmerHale as well as outside consultants.

It even set up mock-hearings with consultants playing members of Congress, the New York Times says.

The behind-the-scenes prepping comes as Zuckerberg negotiated a media tour in which he accepted responsibility and the firm put out the bad and then worse news of how many millions of people had their data compromised.

'Their goal is to make Mr. Zuckerberg appear as humble, agreeable and as forthright as possible,' the Times reports, in a report sourced to people close to the operation.