Wright denies trying to influence Duffy audit
PM’s former chief of staff admits he was ‘ frustrated’ with Senate leaders
Stephen Harper’s former chief of staff denied Monday that he had attempted to influence the outcome of an independent external audit into the Mike Duffy expenses scandal.
During his third day under crossexamination, Nigel Wright admitted to being “frustrated” with senior Conservative Senate leadership over implementing an agreement he made with Duffy — an agreement Duffy’s lawyer, Donald Bayne, says was a “capitulation” Wright forced upon the former TV newsman.
The deal orchestrated by the PMO required longtime Ottawa resident Duffy to admit he had “mistakenly” claimed his Cavendish, P. E. I. cottage as his primary residence while collecting “secondary residence” expenses for his home in the Ottawa suburb of Kanata.
In exchange for the admission and Duffy saying he had paid back the money, the government would publicly confirm that Duffy was a legitimate Prince Edward Island representative and remove him from an audit being done for the Senate by the external auditor Deloitte.
But then, according to Bayne, “the wheels began to fall off” the secret PMO- Duffy arrangement, risking politically damaging fallout.
Shortly after Duffy had publicly issued his agreed mea culpa, Sen. David Tkachuk and other senior Conservative Senate leaders asked Deloitte to keep Duffy in the audit. A frustrated Wright turned to Sen. Irving Gerstein, chair of the Conservative Fund, which is partly taxpayersupported, to work through “senior contacts” at Deloitte.
“The outcome we are pushing for is for Deloitte to report publicly that IF Kanata were the primary residence then the amount owing would be the $ 90 thousand figure and that since Sen. Duffy has committed to repay this amount then Deloitte’s work in determining primary residence is no longer needed,” wrote Wright to members of his team.
Wright testified that all he wanted was to have Gerstein communicate with his fellow senators to bring clarity to what had become a confused situation.
“I just wanted him to fix the broken telephone problem,” Wright told the court.
“You definitely wanted him to fix something,” responded Bayne.
In earlier testimony, Bayne said senior PMO staff reacted with “glee” as Duffy finally appeared on TV and recited the lines they had scripted for him to fulfil an order from the prime minister to close down the embarrassing scandal.