Duffy received two cheques from PMO
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s former top aide arranged not one but two cheques for Sen. Mike Duffy, to assist with the secret repaying of expenses, the embattled senator told a spellbound upper chamber Monday.
With the Senate in an unusual Monday sitting to discuss punishment for Duffy and two other senators over spending irregularities, Duffy charged that Harper’s former chief of staff Nigel Wright — who had paid $90,000 toward Duffy’s housing expense claims — had also directed Conservative party lawyer Arthur Hamilton to have Duffy’s legal bills paid, amounting to a further $13,560.
“(Wright) paid my lawyer’s legal fees,” Duffy told the chamber. “That’s right, the PMO had the Conservative party’s lawyer, Arthur Hamilton, pay for my lawyer.”
Conservat ive party spokesman Cory Hann confirmed the payment.
“At the time these legal expenses were incurred and paid, Mike Duffy was a member of the Conservative caucus. The Conservative party sometimes assists members of caucus with legal expenses,” Hann said in an email.
Duffy, who resigned from caucus, told his fellow senators that Harper must have felt he had done no wrong if his office was willing to pay his legal tab.
“He would never had done it if he felt my expense claims were improper,” Duffy thundered. He said the “monstrous fraud” around his expenses “was the PMO’s creation from start to finish.”
He then tabled an email that he said had been sent to him by Wright on Dec. 4, 2012, which he said applied to his expense claims. “I am told you have complied with all the applicable rules and that there would be several senators with similar arrangements,” the email, signed “Nigel,” says. Apparently referring to a media report about Duffy’s expenses, the email says, “This sure seems to be a smear.”
Wright, through his lawyer, declined to comment Monday night.
Duffy is at the centre of controversy around the $90,000 from Wright, at the time the prime minister’s top aide, which was meant to help pay back the Senate after he claimed a secondary housing allowance in the capital. At issue is an alleged coverup in which the PMO paid off Duffy so that he could in turn repay the disputed sum. A Conservative-dominated Senate audit committee allegedly would then whitewash Duffy’s behaviour and make the scandal disappear.
Other questions were also raised about some of Duffy’s other expenses. Duffy said Monday his expenses were in order but for minor adjustments; the discrepancies over more than four years came to only $437.35, he said.
“Wait until Canadians see the email trail in the hands of my lawyers, and I hope in the hands of the RCMP,” he said.
The RCMP is investigating the circumstances around the cheque. Harper has said he did not know his chief of staff had paid $90,000, and in a radio interview Monday, he toughened his language about Wright, whom he has always said resigned over the matter. In the interview, Harper said Wright had in fact been “dismissed.”