Bombshell at Duffy trial
Statement puts Harper’s new top aide in the room when Wright revealed $90K payment
OTTAWA— Ray Novak, Stephen Harper’s top aide, was in the room when Nigel Wright first told the prime minister’s lawyer Ben Perrin he was going to give Mike Duffy$90,000 to repay disputed Senate expenses, a court heard Tuesday.
It was a stunning statement at Duffy’s criminal fraud trial that directly contradicts both Novak’s statement to the RCMP and the official Conservative Party version of events, which has been repeated throughout the election campaign: that Novak was not in the loop on Wright’s decision to personally pay Duffy’s expenses.
It came at the end of a long, intense day of cross-examination of Wright by Duffy’s lawyer, Donald Bayne.
Bayne read out a statement that Perrin, Harper’s former special counsel in the Prime Minister’s Office, gave to the RCMP on Feb. 20, 2014, in Vancouver, telling police he was surprised when Wright told him and Novak he was going to pay the amount personally.
“I remember looking at Ray to see his reaction,” Perrin told the RCMP investigator.
The revelation may not matter much for the Duffy trial, but it matters a lot for the 2015 election campaign for the Conservative Party because it raises serious questions about whether Novak was truthful with the RCMP and with his boss, Harper. It calls into question what Harper knew or was told by Novak.
When the story of Wright’s payout first broke in May 2013, Harper insisted only Wright and Duffy knew of it. After the RCMP affidavit was released as a court document in November 2013, it was clear the circle of knowledge was much broader, but the PMO insisted publicly and privately that Novak had been in the dark, along with Harper.
Novak succeeded Wright, who resigned once his decision to cut Duffy a cheque became public, creating a storm of controversy for Harper’s government.
On Tuesday, Bayne challenged Wright’s recollection of events on March 22, 2013 — the day the three top PMO aides were scheduled to speak to Duffy’s lawyer Janice Payne to, as Wright put it, “persuade her” that Duffy still needed to repay the money even though their earlier deal with her to withdraw his expenses from the scrutiny of an audit had by then fallen through.
Bayne quoted from the Feb. 20, 2014, statement Perrin gave to the RCMP. According to it, Perrin told Sgt. Greg Horton he met Wright and Novak in Wright’s office just before the phone call with Payne.
Bayne read out Perrin’s words: “At some point Ray Novak enters the room before the call. I don’t recall exactly at what point he came in, but I explain to Nigel again that Sen. Duffy wants to fight this out even though he’s publicly said that he would repay the money. He wants to renege on that and he thinks there’s a possibility he could be found not to be responsible for paying that amount.”
Perrin told Sgt. Horton he advised Wright that “it’s going to be a real, real difficult call because they’re quite incensed. And I said I don’t think they are going to want to repay the amount.
“That was my view, that they seemed pretty determined, and he (Wright) said to me that Sen. Duffy will be repaying the amount because it’s coming out of my pocket.”
Perrin’s next remarks suggested he was surprised: “And at that point I was — that was the first time I’d ever heard that, that that was under contemplation, and the way it was said to me it was pretty clear the decision had already been made, it wasn’t something that Mr. Wright was seeking any views on or any discussion.
“I believe Ray Novak was in the room at that time. So it was right before the (phone) call. But Ray Novak was also there on the call when Nigel Wright said to Janice Payne he would do it. And Ray Novak also received an email, which you have, where Nigel says I’ll be providing my cheque.”
Novak, in his own interview with RCMP investigators the previous week, had denied he was aware Wright was going to pay the money.
Perrin’s memory of events, according to the statement read by Bayne, was different. He told Horton that Wright had emailed both of them saying he would send his cheque on Monday.
“And that’s to who?” the Mountie asked Perrin.
“To Ray Novak and myself. And Ray was in that meeting, and Ray heard this, and I remember looking at Ray to see his reaction,” Perrin replied. “That’s what I can provide you in terms of my evidence.”
Asked if he knew of anyone else who became aware of the payment, Perrin named Novak again, saying he was “shocked” when he read a publicly released RCMP affidavit from 2013 and it did not list Novak as one of those who knew of Wright’s secret $90,000 payment.
Perrin acknowledged to the officer that it sounded like Novak “disput- ed” the notion he had been in the loop on Wright’s decision long before CTV broke news of it nearly two months later, in May 2013.
“The people that from my personal knowledge knew about this was obviously Nigel Wright, myself, Ray Novak . . . and David van Hemmen, Nigel Wright’s assistant.”
In court, Bayne did not ask Wright if that was an accurate reflection of the talk in his office that day prior to the phone call. Wright has previously testified he did not tell the prime minister about him paying the $90,000 to Duffy.
On Tuesday, Wright initially said he didn’t recall any forewarning by Perrin about the call, but after Bayne dramatically read out Perrin’s statement, Wright said he remembered Perrin coming to his office, that he knew it was going to be a “difficult call” and he would have to “make my case.”
Amid this legal drama, Duffy’s cellphone rang loudly in the court just as Bayne finished reading the Perrin statement. He reddened deeply and put it away.
A Conservative campaign spokesman, Kory Teneycke, told reporters last Thursday that Novak never saw the particular email from Wright that Perrin referred to. “Ray Novak learned about this the same time the prime minister did. That’s when it happened,” he said.
“I’ve known Ray for 20 years. It’s unfathomable that Ray would be aware of a payment from Nigel to Mr. Duffy and not tell the prime minister. That’s just unfathomable. It’s not the case.”
The Star has tried to contact the Conservative campaign and Novak for comment but has not yet received a response.
It is expected that Perrin, now an associate professor at the University of British Columbia, will be called as a witness when Bayne finishes crossexamining Wright.
Earlier in the day, Wright told the court he had been in touch with Novak as recently as two weeks ago. That would have been after the campaign had begun, almost on eve of Wright’s testimony at Duffy’s trial. Wright has already testified he has not spoken to anyone about his evidence since the trial started.
Throughout the day, Wright did not implicate Novak. He said only that Novak had come in and out of his office during the call — testimony that appeared to back up the Conservative campaign’s public statements about what Novak knew and didn’t know.
Wright insisted in his testimony that he did not direct others or himself intend to influence or meddle with the outcome of the Deloitte audit of Duffy expense claims, ordered by the Senate to review three senators’ expense claims.
He agreed to Bayne’s suggestion that he wanted to use Sen. Irving Gerstein’s contacts with Deloitte as a “back channel” to the firm. But he said he only intended to find out whether Conservative Sen. David Tkachuk had conveyed his own decision, not the decision of the Prime Minister’s Office, over whether to withdraw Duffy’s residency questions from Deloitte’s scrutiny.
“We were not meddling with any audit,” Wright told Judge Charles Vaillancourt.
Duffy has pleaded not guilty to 31 charges of breach of trust and fraud over his expense claims and to bribery in connection with the $90,000 he eventually received from Wright to repay his expenses.
Wright, a prosecution witness, was investigated but never charged. His testimony, however, is crucial to the Crown’s theory that Duffy corruptly accepted the payment from him.
Amid the legal drama, Duffy’s cellphone rang loudly in the court just as his lawyer finished reading the explosive statement. He reddened deeply and put it away