Pancer reiterated the argument that HP employees and leaders had the best of intentions: stopping leaks they believed could hurt the company.

Dunn has denied knowing that investigators used questionable or illegal. Her lawyer, James Brosnahan, issued a statement denying the charge. He said the charges were "brought against the wrong person at the wrong time and for the wrong reasons."

"They are the culmination of a well-financed and highly orchestrated disinformation campaign," Brosnahan said. "What makes this bearable for Pattie Dunn, is the enormous support she has received in the last three weeks from all kinds of people who know her character, who know her commitment to good corporate governance and who know instinctively and immediately that these charges are false -- and they are false."

He said Dunn worked her way up in the business world when it was not easy for women to get in the door. He said she has always stood for "corporate process, responsibility and service."

"As her many supporters fully expect, she will fight these charges with everything she has," Brosnahan said.

His office did not immediately return calls seeking comment on who orchestrated the "disinformation campaign."

DeLia's lawyer did not return calls for comment Wednesday and he could not be reached Thursday. Some news reports quoted a statement from DeLia, who said he was innocent.

No one answered calls to DePante's office, and Wagner could not be reached.

Lockyer's investigation is continuing and Lockyer has not ruled out that he may file additional charges.

Lockyer filed criminal complaints with felony charges after he and other attorneys combed through a stack of e-mails, memos, reports and other documents, totaling about one million pages. The complaint states each of the five were aware of, and involved with pretexting. It also states that Wagner destroyed his computer "because it had incriminating evidence on it and he would not assist in locating it."

For the second time since Sept. 6, when HP publicly acknowledged investigators may pretexted, or used deception, to obtain phone records, the company's stock fell. It closed Thursday at $37.84, down 18 cents, or .47 percent.