Anatomy of a Senate expense scandal
OTTAWA — It reads like a gripping detective story sold at your neighbourhood bookstore — only it’s not fiction.
The 81-page document released by the RCMP Wednesday in the Senate expense scandal contains page after page of fascinating material which, for the first time, appears to reveal how the Nigel Wright-Mike Duffy scheme to repay Duffy’s expenses unfolded.
And many of the details can be found in the once-private emails written by the central cast of characters — some from the prime minister’s office, others from the Senate.
Among the highlights in the paper trail of 2,600 emails:
On Feb. 6, as the Tories struggled to contain the growing scandal surrounding Duffy’s housing expenses, Wright emailed Chris Woodcock, then the director of issues management in the PMO. “Let this small group be under no illusion,” warned Wright. “I think that this is going to end badly.”
On Feb. 11, Patrick Rogers, the PMO’s manager of parliamentary affairs, wrote to Wright. “I met with Duff today. He will repay, with a couple of conditions, including that admitting to a primary residence in Ottawa does not disqualify him from representing PEI in the Senate.”
On Feb. 15, emails flew within the PMO about this issue and Wright wrote Benjamin Perrin, who was legal counsel to the prime minister.
Convincing the Senate to agree that Duffy’s residency status was fine was “all that stands in the way of Sen. Duffy paying back his $32,000 and closing out his situation.”
On Feb. 18, several days after Harper met Duffy and Wright and told the senator to repay the expenses, the prime minister received a memo from staff. “Your office has worked with Senator Duffy on a plan for him to return money that he incorrectly collected when he declared his longtime home in Kanata as a secondary residence for expenses.”
On Feb. 20, Wright wrote to Woodcock with suggested “media lines” for Duffy when he repaid the money. “We should suggest to Mike that he would acknowledge an error and put it down to ambiguities in the rules and forms. Never mention ‘wrongdoing’ to Mike.”
On Feb. 21, Duffy’s lawyer, Janice Payne, wrote to Perrin listing five demands, including “an arrangement to keep him whole on the repayment” and also to have his legal fees reimbursed. In an email to Perrin and others in the PMO, Wright said the “party is open to keeping Sen. Duffy whole since it is clear that any overpayments were innocently received.”
On Feb. 22, Wright emailed Perrin and others, saying “I now have the go-ahead,” but he wanted to be sure Duffy didn’t “inform” anyone about the arrangement. “I would like it to be explicit. For its part, the Party would not inform anyone.”
He told Perrin “I do want to speak to the PM before everything is considered final.” Less than an hour later, he wrote back: “We are good to go from the PM.”
On Feb. 26, upon being told by PMO staffer Davidvan Hemmen that Duffy’s housing expenses were much higher (then estimated at $80,000), Wright responded: “I am beyond furious. This will all be repaid.”
The same day, Wright replied to an email from Duffy, who was worried about an RCMP investigation.
On March 1, Wright emailed Sen. Carolyn Stewart Olsen and expressed frustration at a Senate subcommittee and Deloitte (which studied Duffy’s expenses). He wanted them to say Duffy had repaid and the audit was no longer necessary.
On March 8, after weeks during which Duffy said he couldn’t afford to pay himself and the party backed out from helping, Wright emailed Woodcock, the issues-management director. “For you only: I am personally covering Duffy’s $90K …”
On March 21, Sen. Marjory LeBreton emailed Wright, saying Duffy was “whining” to her that he wasn’t getting an assurance from the subcommittee the audit would be withdrawn and he had told some Tory senators “that he has a commitment from you and the PMO.”
On May 9, after Tory senators softened a report on Duffy (the audit had not been withdrawn), Sen. Linda Frum emailed Ray Novak, then Harper’s principal secretary. “Feel compelled to speak out … By protecting our own we are making Marjory and PM look terrible. Not fair to them.”
On May 14, Andrew MacDougall, then Harper’s director of communications, told Wright he had a call from a journalist about Wright co-signing a loan to repay Duffy’s expenses.
PMO press secretary Carl Valle wrote: “Would the PM know the actual answer to the question? Just in case he asks.”
Wright responded: “The PM knows, in broad terms only, that I personally assisted Duffy when I was getting him to agree to repay the expenses. On the specific matter, I did not co-sign a loan.”
Later that night, CTV broke the story and the scandal’s floodgates opened. It wasn’t until the next day, May 15, that the bombshell fully exploded and Harper said he just learned that Duffy paid the $90,000.
On May 16, Woodcock emailed Duffy asking if a news story the previous day was out of context. It quoted Duffy saying the Royal Bank had helped with the loan and that “Nigel played no role.”
Duffy responded, saying he had not known until Novak informed him.
Woodcock passed this along to Novak, who replied: “Yes, we need to discuss this. His lying is tiresome.”