OTTAWA, ON. (NEWS 1130) – Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s former chief of staff returns to the witness stand in Ottawa to continue giving his side of the story at Conservative Senator Mike Duffy’s fraud, breach of trust and bribery trial.
During his much-anticipated appearance on Wednesday, Nigel Wright told the judge about what was known inside the Prime Minister’s Office as the “scenario for repayment.”
That was a plan to make Duffy’s expenses scandal quietly go away by saying the senator had possibly made a mistake in his claims, rather than suggesting Duffy had done anything wrong.
Under questioning from Crown Counsel, Wright made it clear he didn’t tell Harper the deal involved someone else paying Duffy’s expenses, but did say that several of Harper’s closest aides were in the know.
In the end, the chairman of the Conservative party’s financial wing balked at the final price tag of $90,000 in expenses plus Duffy’s legal costs, which is when Wright testified that he made a quick decision to pay it himself.
Duffy has pleaded not guilty to 31 charges in connection with his Senate office, living and travel expenses.
Meantime, there has been a huge document dump in the trial. Our Parliament Hill Reporter Cormac Mac Sweeney has gone through more than 400 pages of emails between some of Stephen Harper’s top aides that have been released as evidence and they shed some light on how Harper’s inner circle handled the scandal.
It’s clear from a lot of the back and forth between members of the Prime Minister’s Office that Duffy was difficult to manage, but at one point they talk about him enraging many other Senators in his caucus with remarks about his situation.
He then attacked people apparently who were on committees and sub-committees that were even looking into his situation.
Conservative Senators Pamela Wallin was mentioned in a few of the emails but it was mainly about Duffy from the start. The Prime Minister’s Office was actively working with the Senate to try and separate Duffy from the rest of the pack. They wanted to make sure he was happy and protected.
In one email it shows they wanted to prevent him from going “squirrely” on weekend TV shows. They also had long drawn out conversations on how his media releases would work, what they would say to the media, even creating fake interviews so Duffy would know how to answer questions.