House committee to hold hearing on fake letters to Perriello

A congressional committee announced today that it would hold hearings this week on bogus letters sent to U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello and two other congressmen in the run-up to a vote on a clean energy bill.

Chairman Edward J. Markey of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming will hold an investigative hearing into the matter Thursday.

“The Select Committee has now discovered more than a dozen fraudulent letters that were sent to several members of Congress as part of an ‘Astroturf’ campaign run by the firm, Bonner & Associates, and contracted by the American Clean Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity,” a news release states. “This campaign was designed to influence members of Congress on the House-passed Waxman-Markey climate and energy bill.”

Markey launched the congressional investigation after the fake letters were revealed by The Daily Progress.

Thursday’s hearing is expected to feature several key figures in the controversy, though the list of witnesses has not yet been announced.

“While the hearing will focus on the specific events surrounding this fraud on Congress, the practice of ‘Astroturf’ - corporate-funded activities that create the false appearance of a true grassroots movement - have come to the fore in American political discourse surrounding the debates over health care and energy legislation,” Markey’s news release says.

An employee of Bonner & Associates is believed to have forged 14 letters to appear as if they were sent by community groups, such as the Jefferson Area Board for Aging, the Albemarle-Charlottesville chapter of the NAACP, a Charlottesville chapter of the American Association of University Women, the Senior Center Inc. and others.

The phony letters urged the congressmen to oppose the American Clean Energy and Security Act, commonly known as the cap-and-trade bill. The measure passed the House by a slim margin.

Bonner & Associates has said that the employee was a temporary staffer and was fired immediately after the forgeries were discovered.

The “grassroots” lobbying company, however, did not notify Perriello of the forgeries. Several affected Charlottesville-area groups also say they were not told of the letters.