Hurd Continues To Field HP Spy Scandal Inquiries

On Wednesday, HP released a copy of Hurd's written responses to questions that follow up on a September Congressional hearing on the HP spying scandal. The company has been trying to move past allegations that investigators used pretexting, or deception, to obtain detailed records of phone calls made by the company's board members and reporters who wrote about HP.

California Attorney General Bill Lockyer charged two outside investigators, former HP board chairperson Patricia Dunn, and former HP counsel Kevin Hunsaker with felonies for allegedly breaking laws to obtain personal call records of reporters and board members. The defendants have maintained their innocence. Most will appear in court over the next several weeks to respond to the felony charges.

In his written response to a separate Congressional inquiry--the responses that HP released on Wednesday--Hurd maintained that he did not focus on the details of the internal investigation and was unaware of the methods investigators used on HP's behalf. He said he could not remember several related facts.

Hurd said his memory was not clear on how long he attended a meeting in which investigators discussed their probe, who exactly attended the meeting, or if anyone discussed what types of phone record information investigators could obtain. Hurd said he does not remember who said they could access phone information from the Web.

"What I recall is that at some meeting someone mentioned getting phone-record information off of the Web and thinking there must be some sort of Web site with this information," he said.

He said he was uncertain if he was the intended recipient of a report which outlined that investigators planned to uncover the source of the boardroom leaks by reviewing who the person had contacted and how many times. He also said he could not remember who presented a slide show based on the report.

Hurd said that he did not realize that investigators had reviewed his HP-owned cell phone account until a board member quit, then said he suspected investigators used illegal tactics.

Hurd, Dunn, and others have insisted that it was important for HP to investigate and stop leaks from its corporate board to the media, but they continue to say they did not think at the time that investigators employed illegal or questionable means.