HP's Dunn asked to appear before Congress

A congressional subcommittee on Friday asked HP chairman Patricia Dunn and general counsel Ann Baskins to appear at a 28 September hearing about the company's surveillance methods.

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce also sent letters asking HP outside counsel Larry Sonsini and outside investigator Ronald DeLia to testify as part of the daylong hearing.

The House committee said in a statement: "The hearing is part of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee's seven-month inquiry into data brokers and the questionable practice known as 'pretexting' - the use of lies and deception to gain access to information that is not publicly available and without the victim's consent."

In letters to the four people, they were asked to inform the committee in writing by Tuesday whether they will appear voluntarily at the hearing, which has been titled "Hewlett-Packard's Pretexting Scandal".

Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee chairman Ed Whitfield used the letters to urge those involved to use the hearings as "an opportunity to be fully open and transparent". He noted that the pretexting efforts involved "the highest levels of corporate governance within HP".

The congressional committee did not issue subpoenas to require the four people to testify. Congress does have subpoena power, however.

silicon.com sister site CNET News.com reported last week the House committee was planning to hold hearings on the matter. HP has said the personal phone records of board members, two HP employees and at least nine journalists, including three CNET News.com reporters, were accessed.

The pretexting was done as part of an investigation to discover the source of media reports about the company, including a 23 January, 2006, CNET News.com story.

In addition to the congressional probe, HP also faces inquiries from the FBI, the US Attorney's Office, the Securities and Exchange Commission and California's attorney general, who has said he has enough information to charge people both inside and outside HP with crimes.

An HP spokesman said on Friday: "HP has been and continues to fully co-operate with all ongoing investigations and inquiries, including the one with the House subcommittee." But he declined to say whether Baskins or Dunn will testify.

The House committee has also asked HP to turn over a variety of documents by today.

A representative for Sonsini's law firm, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, was not immediately available. And DeLia did not immediately respond to a message left at his company, Security Outsourcing Solutions.

Dunn said on Tuesday she will step down as chairman in January but will remain on the company's board of directors. The same day, long-time director George Keyworth said he would resign, noting in a statement he was a source for the January article on CNET News.com.

Ina Fried writes for CNET News.com