Investigation into forged letters planned

A top congressman announced Friday that he is launching an investigation into a half-dozen forged letters sent to U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello in an attempt to sway his vote on a landmark piece of climate change legislation.

U.S. Rep. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., chairman of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, said his committee will begin an investigation into the matter immediately.

“This fraud on Congress shows that some opponents of clean energy have resorted to forgery and theft to block progress,” Markey said in a statement that credits The Daily Progress for bringing the bogus letters to light in a news story Friday morning.

The letters were sent by a Washington grassroots lobbying firm called Bonner & Associates. One letter was forged to look like it had come from Creciendo Juntos, a Charlottesville-based network that focuses on Hispanic issues. Another five letters were faked to appear as if they came from members of the Albemarle-Charlottesville chapter of the NAACP.

The phony letters urged Perriello to vote against the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, also known as the cap-and-trade bill, which the House narrowly approved in late June. The letters sought to convince Perriello that the measure would hurt minority families in his district, which stretches from the Charlottesville area down to Danville.

Bonner & Associates has admitted to Creciendo Juntos that the letters originated from a person working for Bonner. Gwynn Geiger Hegyi, a partner with the company, has called the fake letter-writing campaign a “mistake.”

Hegyi and other officials with Bonner & Associates have not returned several phone calls seeking comment. The company’s founder, Jack Bonner, sent a statement to the Associated Press on Friday that blamed the matter on a temporary worker who has been terminated.

“This should not have happened — we had a bad employee — but through our internal checks, we found the problem,” Bonner said.

It remains unknown who — if anyone — hired Bonner & Associates to create the false appearance of grassroots opposition to the cap-and-trade bill by minority groups in Perriello’s district.

The controversy made headlines around the country Friday, prompting stories in the Washington Post, Roll Call, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, on MSNBC, among other news outlets. Political Web sites including the Huffington Post, Talking Points Memo and Politico also picked up the story. U.S. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., also wrote about the matter Friday on the national political blog DailyKos.

Revelations about the phony letters by Bonner & Associates also prompted a protest outside the company’s 17th Street headquarters in Washington. A YouTube video posted Friday afternoon shows the protesters, wearing little more than underwear, chanting such slogans as: “No more naked lies! No more dirty coal!”

Hilary O. Shelton, director of the NAACP’s Washington bureau, released a statement saying she was “appalled that an organization like Bonner and Associates would stoop to these depths to deceive Congress. In this case Bonner and Associates are exploiting the African-American community to achieve their misdirected goal.”

Perriello’s office sent out an e-mail to supporters Friday that highlighted the controversy and asked for campaign contributions to fight such tactics.

“This morning, The Daily Progress reported that letters sent to Congressman Perriello’s Washington, D.C., office in opposition to legislation promoting clean energy and green jobs were forged by a lobbyist,” wrote Jessica Barba, Perriello’s press secretary, in the e-mail.

“The letters purported to be from respected community organizations. In reality, an unscrupulous lobbyist stole the logos and reputations of these groups in an attempt to deceive and manipulate Congressman Perriello into opposing crucial legislation. On Tuesday, Tom wrote asking for you to help support our rapid response efforts. Today’s article makes clear the depths to which our opponents will stoop. The difference could not be more stark between Tom’s people-powered campaign for the common good and the underhanded tactics of special interests.”

Barba said in an interview Friday evening that Perriello supports the investigation into the matter.

“If there is a way for [Creciendo Juntos and the Albemarle-Charlottesville NAACP] to get justice, then we will support that in any way,” she said. “Clearly this brings up a lot of questions about lobbying rules and ethics rules.”

“This kind of extreme action gives all politicians a bad name that they don’t all deserve,” said Bob Gibson, executive director of the Sorensen Institute, a political leadership organization at the University of Virginia that stresses civil discourse and ethics in politics and government.

“The use of Charlottesville groups’ letterheads for fake lobbying purposes should be investigated,” he said Friday.

Markey, who co-authored the American Clean Energy and Security Act, thanked Perriello for supporting the legislation and warned his colleagues that other such deceptive opposition may be occurring.

“I encourage all members of Congress to be on the lookout for other suspicious and illegal materials,” Markey said. “My Select Committee will immediately begin an investigation of the extent and scope of this activity.”

Opponents of the cap and trade legislation, which is now before the U.S. Senate, say the measure will increase electricity bill costs and eliminate jobs.