Cooperation vowed in forged-letters probe

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- A coal industry group and the lobbying firm behind forged letters sent to three congressmen have responded in part to questions from a congressional committee investigating the recent scandal.

The U.S. House of Representatives' Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming launched a probe into the bogus letters after The Daily Progress disclosed that U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello, D-5th, had received a number of fake letters urging him to vote against a landmark piece of climate-change legislation.

The letters purported to be from local branches of the NAACP, the American Association of University Women, the nonprofit Creciendo Juntos and the Jefferson Area Board for Aging.

U.S. Reps. Christopher P. Carney and Katherine A. Dahlkemper, both Pennsylvania Democrats, also received forged letters in the weeks before the vote on the American Clean Energy and Security Act, also known as the cap-and-trade bill.

The letters originated from the Washington lobbying firm Bonner & Associates, a subcontractor of the Hawthorn Group, which was hired by the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity.

U.S. Rep. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., chairman of the committee investigating the letters and a sponsor of the cap-and-trade bill, has sent letters to Bonner and ACCCE that demand answers to a long list of questions, due this week.

"Both Bonner and ACCCE gave us partial answers" but indicated they will cooperate with the investigation, said Eben Burnham-Snyder, spokesman for the committee.

Stephen L. Miller, president and CEO of the coal industry association, said more answers will be forthcoming. -

A key question is why the three congressmen were not notified about the forged letters before the June 26 House vote. The House narrowly passed the bill 219 to 212; Perriello voted for it and Carney and Dahlkemper against.

The coal coalition first learned about the letters two days before the House vote.

Yet none of the three congressmen was notified about the letters until early August, after the forgeries were revealed.

"The deliberate inaction prior to the House vote and the extended silence after the vote -- some 40 days after ACCCE knew what happened -- raise serious concerns," Markey wrote to the coal group.

Coalition spokeswoman Lisa Camoosa Miller said Hawthorn told her organization that the congressmen had all been notified about the letters in late June.

"When we first learned that this had happened, Hawthorn told us that apologies had been given and the congressmen had been notified," she said.

Those notifications never happened.

Michael Coe, chief operating officer of the Hawthorn Group, said Bonner & Associates told his company the congressmen had been notified.

"After completion of the project, [Jack] Bonner [of Bonner & Associates] informed Hawthorn that in addition to the legitimate letters resulting from their work, some falsified letters had been delivered to a few legislators," he said. "This violated Bonner's own quality control and verification process that we understood was in place when we hired him.

"Hawthorn immediately terminated our work with Bonner and promptly advised ACCCE of the identified falsified letters and informed ACCCE that Mr. Bonner had agreed to follow up with the congressional offices and organizations to inform them and apologize on behalf of Bonner & Associates. Only subsequently did Hawthorn learn that Bonner had failed to reach the congressional offices to properly advise them."

Bonner & Associates has blamed the letters on a temporary part-time employee whom they said they promptly fired.

Brian McNeill is a staff writer for The Daily Progress in Charlottesville.