Ross says he will show texts
The Jami-Lee Ross political saga continued yesterday with serious allegations reported against Ross, and more planned releases.
Ross, who left the National Party in spectacular fashion earlier this week after accusing its leader of electoral fraud, promised on Tuesday to release a taped conversation and screenshots of texts that would prove his claim.
But on Wednesday only the taped conversation with party leader Simon Bridges was released by Ross, and while it was very politically damaging – featuring a frank conversation about the race of MPs, donations, and Bridges insulting one of his MPs directly – it did not provide a smoking gun that proved the electoral fraud.
Indeed, Bridges argued the tape exonerates him – and said that Ross had now ‘‘done his worst’’.
But Ross does not appear to be finished, and has told RNZ that those text messages with party secretary Greg Hamilton about the alleged illegal donation would be released.
Also yesterday morning, Newsroom reported that a yearlong investigation into Ross had uncovered claims of toxic sexual affairs and manipulation by the MP.
Two women who were not named by Newsroom told the news website their affairs with Ross, who is married with children, turned sour, with one claiming he used her to dig dirt on National Party politicians and the other saying he was intensely controlling.
Stuff has asked Ross to respond to these allegations but has not received a response. On Wednesday he said he was comfortable with his relationship with his wife and cautioned MPs against ‘‘lifting the bedsheets’’.
Hamilton has also been asked to comment on what he thinks will be in the text messages.
It is still not clear exactly how the $100,000 donation was received by the National Party.
Ross alleges that the $100,000 donation originated solely from Chinese businessman Zhang Yikun, but to get it under the threshold for anonymous donations it was spread between different donors at Bridges’ request.
Bridges utterly refutes that, and said on Wednesday the ‘‘large sum of money’’ earlier this year was intended to come from Zhang ‘‘and his supporters’’ – meaning it would be legal for it to be split up into chunks for each supporter.
Any donation exceeding $30,000 must be reported to the Electoral Commission within 10 days.
The Electoral Commission has no record of any donations exceeding $30,000 paid to the National Party this year.
If a donation exceeded $15,000 it would still have to have a name attached but would not require immediate disclosure.
Bridges said there were ‘‘a number of donations there from a number of individuals’’.
He said Ross had defamed him and lied about him.
The National Party has been asked for further comment on the exact nature of those donations.
University of Otago electoral law expert Andrew Geddis said there was an ‘‘innocent’’ explanation for everything on the tape but that didn’t necessarily mean nothing illegal had happened.
‘‘There still are ethical question about having two senior MPs so deeply involved in getting large amounts of cash directly from donors and whether that is appropriate,’’ Geddis said.
‘‘There could also still be illegal practices that have happened here and without knowing exactly what the causes of that $100k donation was, we don’t know which one it is.’’
‘‘There still are ethical question about having two senior MPs so deeply involved in getting large amounts of cash . . .’’
Andrew Geddis, electoral law expert