Nigel Wright wanted to do 'good deed' in repaying Duffy expense

CTVNews.ca Staff, Published Thursday, August 13, 2015 8:19AM EDT,  Last Updated Thursday, August 13, 2015 12:53PM EDT, Source

Sen. Mike Duffy's defence lawyer is getting his chance to question Nigel Wright, Stephen Harper's former chief of staff and a star witness in the criminal trial over Senate expense claims.

Duffy's lawyer, Donald Bayne, opened his cross-examination of Wright on Thursday, by introducing four binders filled with emails into evidence at the Ottawa courthouse. The emails are expected to form part of Bayne's defence as he questions Wright about the $90,000 personal cheque he wrote and gave to the senator.

That secret repayment is part of the Crown's case against Duffy, who faces 31 charges including fraud of government, bribery, and breach of public trust relating to his Senate expense claims.

Duffy has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Among the emails introduced in court was a thread mentioning CTV Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife, who was pursuing a story reporting that Wright had paid Duffy's expenses. In an email sent the morning of May 14, 2013, PMO spokesperson Andrew MacDougall contacted Wright and two PMO staffers to give them a "heads up" that Fife was investigating.

"Fife has asked me if Nigel co-signed a loan to help Duffy pay off debts to Senate," MacDougall wrote. "Fife knows Party didn't pay Duffy sums. I am neither confirming, nor denying any Nigel involvement."

PMO staffer Carl Vallee replied to the email, asking if the PM would "know the actual answer to the question? Just in case he asks us."

Wright replied: "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."

That same night, Fife reported on CTV National News that Wright secretly intervened to help pay back the money.

Chris Woodcock, the PMO's director of issues management, emailed Duffy almost immediately after the newscast aired, at 10:30 p.m. on May 14. "Have you seen the story?" Woodcock asked. "Someone is showing Fife your emails."

After breaking down the sources in the story, Woodcock advised Duffy to "stick to the same answer you gave Fife: that you repaid, but no taxpayer money was involved."

After a full day of examining Wright on Wednesday, the Crown had a few more questions for him regarding the $90,000 payment on Thursday. Wright testified that he decided to pay for Duffy's expenses "a day or two" after learning the Conservative Party would not. He said he told Woodcock so he would be informed when "preparing responses" to the media.

"My view was, I was helping out. I was doing a good deed," he said. "It's Matthew 6: Do things quietly, not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing."

The Bible verse Wright referred to is Matthew 6:3. In the New American Standard Version of the Bible, the full line reads: "But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing." The preceding passage advises the reader not to "sound a trumpet" when giving money to the poor.

On Wednesday, Wright testified about a "scenario for repayment" in which the PMO would cover Duffy's expenses, the senator would admit to a "possible error" on his expense forms, and the potential scandal would quietly go away.

A series of emails revealed in court show how Duffy's lawyer pressed for a number of concessions from Wright and the PMO, including a promise to cover Duffy's costs, and to withdraw his name from a Deloitte audit of Senate expenses.

Wright testified that he did not tell Harper he planned to cover Duffy's expenses as part of a repayment deal. Wright said Harper was aware of the repayment deal "in very broad terms," but only insofar as that the issue would be resolved. He added that the prime minister told Duffy he should repay the expenses.

Wright told the court he initially thought Duffy owed about $32,000 to cover expense claims, and that he had planned to cover that, along with legal costs, using money from the Conservative Party coffers. He said he became "furious" when, a few weeks after reaching a deal, he learned that Duffy would have to pay closer to $80,000, plus legal costs. The party balked at paying the higher sum, so Wright said he would cover Duffy's costs himself to allow the deal to go forward.

He testified he felt he had an "obligation" to help Duffy repay his expenses, after the Conservative Party backed out of doing it. He added that he "lived to regret it."