Harper’s lawyer told RCMP top aide knew of $ 90,000 payment by Wright
Stephen Harper’s longtime adviser, Ray Novak, knew from the outset about a plan by former chief of staff Nigel Wright to secretly pay $ 90,000 to cover Sen. Mike Duffy’s controversial expenses, it was alleged Tuesday at Duffy’s trial.
Novak, through a Conservative party spokesman, has denied knowing about the payment before it became public knowledge. Harper also has said he himself was unaware of the payment, and fired Wright when he found out about it.
Novak was Harper’s chief of staff before the election campaign and is now travelling with the Conservative leader.
The allegation that Novak knew of the payment — and the potential political embarrassment this carries for the Conservatives — was contained in a statement made to police by Harper’s former legal adviser, Ben Perrin.
It was read into the court record by defence lawyer Donald Bayne at Duffy’s trial on charges of fraud, bribery and breach of trust.
Harper now faces a political dilemma. Wright left the Prime Minister’s Office in 2013 because he had kept details of the $ 90,000 payment from his boss, the Prime Minister’s Office has said. The new allegation indicates Wright’s replacement, Novak, did the same.
Asked about the testimony late Tuesday, Harper spokesman Stephen Lecce stuck to the message Harper has been giving for days.
“The prime minister told Mr. Duffy to repay his expenses. The prime minister was told Mr. Duffy had repaid those expenses. When the prime minister learned that was not true, he made that information public. There are two individuals responsible for this matter — Mr. Wright and Mr. Duffy — and they are being held accountable,” Lecce said via email.
As of Tuesday, Perrin’s statement about who knew what was not evidence. However, he will be testifying next at the trial, when Wright completes his testimony.
Defence lawyer Bayne read out an interview conducted by the RCMP with Perrin in February 2014. In it, Perrin told the RCMP investigator that it was “black and white” that Novak had been told Wright would foot the $ 90,000 bill for Duffy’s contested expenses.
“I believe that Ray Novak was in the room at that time,” Perrin said in the transcript that Bayne read.
“... The people who from my own personal knowledge knew about this was ( sic) obviously, Nigel Wright, Ray Novak, we’ve gone through that, and David van Hemmen, Nigel Wright’s assistant.”
Though Wright left the PMO more than two years ago, he told the trial that he is still in contact with Novak and, pressed by Bayne, said he last communicated via BBM with him about two weeks ago.
No record remains of the conversation, said Wright. Bayne did not ask what the two men discussed.
Wright himself testified Tuesday he knew there was a chance his $ 90,000 personal payment to cover Duffy’s Senate expenses might not remain a secret, but said he didn’t expect the public impact to be as great as it became.
“My view was when I decided to write the cheque myself that it could well become known and if that were to be the case it would be embarrassing,” he said. “But I had no concept of the impact it would have or the connotations that would be put on it.”
Wright has testified he paid Duffy’s bill in an act of altruism and wanted it kept secret in accordance with the teachings of the Bible.
Wright’s “biblical” explanation was met with skepticism by Bayne, who says the cheque from the independently wealthy Wright was nothing more than part of a political damage control strategy concocted by Harper’s senior aides.
Wright, 52, spent much of his testimony Tuesday sparring with Bayne over his role in a confidential Senate- ordered audit of Duffy’s expenses.
Bayne accused Wright of attempting to influence the outcome of the audit and ignoring its highly sensitive nature.