HP spooked on its own spokesman

NEW YORK  - Hewlett-Packard Co. said  it used improper methods to access phone records of two employees, including its own spokesman, in an internal probe into leaks to the media.

HP is under investigation by U.S. federal prosecutors and the California attorney general over the company's potentially illegal tactics in obtaining phone records in a bid to end boardroom leaks to the media.

HP spokesman Michael Moeller said that Patricia Dunn, the company's departing chairman, and Chief Executive Mark Hurd, who is due to replace Dunn in January, had both apologized to him on the matter.

"Mark and Patty have personally apologized to me. I think it speaks volumes that I'm still doing my job," he said.

Robert Sherbin, another HP spokesman, said Moeller was not found to be a source of the leaks.

"The investigators' suspicions were misplaced and were baseless," Sherbin said.

Sherbin said there was another employee who was a target of the probe, but declined to give any details on who that was.

The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee on Friday asked Dunn and HP's General Counsel Ann Baskins to testify at a hearing later this month about the company's investigation into media leaks.

The congressional hearing is part of an investigation into "pretexting," which the House panel described as "the use of lies and deception to gain access to information that is not publicly available and without the victim's consent."