New texts feature top National official
Jami-Lee Ross has released texts between him and National Party general manager Greg Hamilton in his latest salvo at the party.
In a series of text messages sent to media yesterday, Ross said the texts showed “National knew about legality issues with the donation back in September.
“I had also been telling them back then that Simon Bridges was the one offered the donation. Their statement that they knew nothing of it was false. I was falsely called a liar by the National Party,” Ross said in his message to media.
He also referred to allegations made about his treatment of women in a Newsroom website article yesterday.
“You will be interested I am sure in any comment on the Newsroom article. I make no comment on that. I am considering my legal options.
“I won’t be doing a stand-up today. I am no longer in Wellington.”
The texts appear to relate to $100,000 donated to the National Party following a dinner with Zhang Yikun and Colin Zheng. Ross has claimed the money came from a single donor but was broken into smaller chunks to get round electoral law.
In one exchange, Ross tells Hamilton he is unable to track down individual donors. “I was advised the names and addresses for the donors. I’ve passed them on. I don’t know them individually though. I’ve not been asked to track down donors before. This appears new to me. Is this a sticking point?” Hamilton responds: “We do require by law to have a name and address. In this case many of the addresses provided don’t match what is on the electoral role. We are happy to track down / confirm from here. We would need some phone numbers however as we have no way of knowing how to contact. Was there a particular individual who organised them. Perhaps that person could assist to confirm details.”
Ross responded that “It was Simon Bridges that arranged the donation, or group of donations.”
Bridges has denied doing anything wrong and accused Ross of defaming him. Earlier Ross released a conversation he taped about the donation between himself and Bridges. He also took the tape to police.