House Panel Digs Deep in HP Spy Case

HP chief executive Mark V. Hurd, right, before testifying. He later told the committee, "This is not my finest hour. . . . I should have caught it, I didn't." (By Melina Mara -- The Washington Post)

Taking turns, subcommittee members quoted from thick binders of internal documents and reports, and interrogated the panelists on what they knew and whether they still stood by their actions.

Dunn, who has resigned in the scandal, received or authored many of the e-mails. She acknowledged being party to briefings about the investigation but did not accept responsibility for the methods investigators used, saying she relied on guidance from Hunsaker, Baskins and Hurd. Dunn insisted she never approved the use of pretexting, saying, "I was unaware that the fraudulent misrepresentation of identity was a part of the standard arsenal of HP tactics or used in this investigation."

At one point, Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) said: "Ms. Dunn, you knew that a lot of these techniques were going on. You just didn't think it was your job to do anything about it."

Hurd, facing less confrontational questioning, called the investigators' methods "a rogue investigation that violated our own principles and values." He said he wished he had heeded signs that things were amiss, and added, "It will never happen again."

But subcommittee members said there were plenty of red flags in the case that should have made HP executives aware the company was entering unethical territory. In particular, HP executives approved sending false information to a News.com reporter, which contained an e-mail tracer that they hoped would lead them to the anonymous source quoted in her stories.

DeGette asked Dunn if she was at all concerned about the technique used in an operation to "sting" a reporter to trick her into revealing her source.

"I sent the team to management to get approval for their techniques," Dunn replied.

"Who was that in management?" DeGette said.

"Mr. Hurd," she said.

For his part, asked whether he knew about the monitoring of board members and their families, the monitoring of reporters and the phone pretexting, Hurd said no each time. He faced the sharpest questioning when it came to the e-mail ruse in which HP investigators made up a fictitious tipster named "Jacob."

DeGette asked Hurd if he thought it was "ethical for investigators to be coming up with a fake individual to be e-mailing reporters."

"Let me try to tell you what was going through my head," he began.