Groups accused of sending forged letters to Perriello respond to Congress

A coal industry advocacy group and the lobbying firm behind the forged letters sent to three congressmen have submitted documents and answers in response to questions raised by a congressional committee investigating the recent “astroturfing” scandal.

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

Perriello received a total of eight letters falsely purporting to be from the Albemarle-Charlottesville chapter of the NAACP, a local chapter of the American Association of University Women, Creciendo Juntos (a network of nonprofit organizations serving Charlottesville’s Hispanic population) and the Jefferson Area Board for Aging.

Two other House members — Christopher P. Carney and Kathy Dahlkemper, both Pennsylvania Democrats — also received forged letters in the weeks leading up to the vote on the American Clean Energy and Security Act, also known as the cap-and-trade bill.

The fake letters originated from Washington “grasstops” lobbying firm Bonner & Associates, which was working as a subcontractor of public affairs outreach firm the Hawthorn Group, which had been hired by the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, a coal industry trade association.

U.S. Rep. Edward J. Markey, chairman of the committee investigating the letters and a sponsor of the cap-and-trade bill, has sent strongly worded letters to Bonner & Associates and ACCCE that demand answers to a long list of questions related to the matter. Answers to Markey’s questions were due this week.

“Both Bonner and ACCCE gave us partial answers,” said Eben Burnham-Snyder, spokesman for Markey’s committee. “I can’t comment on what they did or didn’t give us at this point. But I can say they both have indicated that they will cooperate fully with the investigation.”

Stephen L. Miller, president and CEO of the coal industry association, said he is committed to working with the congressional probe into the forgeries.

“Toward that goal, today we submitted responses to questions from the committee in its Aug. 5 letter to ACCCE,” Miller said in a statement late Thursday. “It is clear that some additional answers to questions posed by the committee will be forthcoming as ACCCE’s internal examination continues. Out of respect for the committee’s ongoing investigation, ACCCE is not publicly releasing its response to the committee at this time.”

A key question of the investigation is why the three congressmen were not notified about the forged letters before the House voted on the cap-and-trade bill on June 26. The House narrowly passed the bill by a 219-to-212 margin, with Perriello voting for it, and Carney and Dahlkemper voting in opposition.

The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity first learned of the existence of the forged letters on June 24, two days before the House voted on the measure.

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

“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 in a letter to the coal advocacy group.

As part of its nearly $12 million lobbying effort this spring, the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity hired the Hawthorn Group, which then subcontracted with Bonner & Associates to reach out to community organizations and ask members of those organizations to write letters to their congressman against the bill.

Lisa Camoosa Miller, spokeswoman of ACCCE, said her organization had been told by Hawthorn 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.

As it turned out, those notifications never happened.

Michael Coe, chief operating officer of the Hawthorn Group, said Bonner & Associates had told his company that 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 not returned several calls for comment. In a statement sent to other news organizations, Bonner blamed the letters on a temporary part-time employee whom they said they promptly fired after the forgeries were discovered.

Gwynn Geiger Hegyi, a partner with Bonner & Associates, notified the executive director of Creciendo Juntos about the forgeries in late June. But the local chapter of the NAACP, JABA and the American Association of University Women received no such notification from Bonner & Associates.

Once the forgeries were revealed publicly two weeks ago, Miller said, ACCCE realized that they had been misled about the notifications. The organization’s president went to Congress to personally apologize to the congressmen, she said. Senior ACCCE officials called and apologized to each of the community organizations.

Details of what Bonner and ACCCE have so far provided to the congressional committee may come to light as early as next week.

Jessica Barba, Perriello’s press secretary, said she is “looking forward to seeing what they come up with.”