Jack Bonner of Bonner Associates has responded to the news that an employee at his firm sent a forged letter purporting to come from a local Hispanic group, urging a congressman to oppose the recent climate change bill.
In a statement emailed to TPMmuckraker, Bonner wrote:
We take our business very seriously. A temporary employee—lied to us—and contrary to our policies sent these letters. We—no one else—we on our own found this out. We immediately fired the person. We then, called those effected, explained what happened and apologized. In the case of the group in the story—we did it in person and by letter.This should not have happened—we had a bad employee—but through our internal checks, we found the problem, and on our own initiative took the step to notify the affected group.
So Bonner seems to be acknowledging that the phony NAACP letters were also sent by his firm, in addition to the phony Hispanic group letter — something that hadn’t previously been confirmed.
We’ve asked Bonner for the identity of the client that his firm was representing, and whether anyone else knew in advance about the letter. We’ll keep you posted.