G&M : "The Conservative Party of Canada initially planned to repay Senator Mike Duffy’s improperly-claimed expenses from their taxpayer-subsidized war chest but balked after learning the debt owed was nearly three times higher."
Apparently $32,000 in taxpayer and donor war chest funds to whitewash the audit and shut Duffy up was an ok deal, but $90,000 - not.
Thank goodness for Nigel Wright and his cheque - stepping up just in time to save the Senate the embarrassment of clawing back Duffy's wages like they are doing with Brazeau's.
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Noon update : Upon closer reading of RCMP Corporal Greg Horton's Information to Obtain, linked at "deal" in the post, I realize for the first time that this entire ridiculous saga - from Duffy becoming a PEI "resident" on the day he was announced to the Senate and his subsequent bogus expense claims through to the Stewart Olsen/Tkachuk Senate whitewash and Nigel Wright's cheque deal - this whole mess was predicated entirely on Duffy's mistaken notion that not being a resident of PEI would preclude him from being a senator. What a fucking prat.
Meanwhile, Paul Wells notes a prior in the Con record of buying inconvenient people off -a “binding agreement” for $50K with Harper in the loop to ditch unwanted Con candidate Alan Riddell in 2006.
But there's an earlier precedent still : Alliance MP Jim Hart stepped aside for Stockwell Day in Okanagan-Coquihalla in 2000, also for $50K, originally to be split 50/50 between the Party and the Office of the Leader of the Opposition. Hart had to sue for payment and signed the non-disclosure. Pushed to the Left and Loving It, a blog I really miss, quotes the relevant passages on this one from Preston Manning's book.
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10 comments:
Gerstein involved with in/out as well, shouldn't he be investigated?
If you were a party to a plan to defraud, wouldn't that make you a part of a conspiracy to defraud, even if you didn't participate in the actual fraud?
Lots of interesting legal questions.
As of RCMP Greg Horton's June 24th Production ITO, which is the clearest most comprehensive piece on this that I've read anywhere and I cannot recommend it highly enough, a number of people had not yet been interviewed, including Wright, Gerstein, and Tkachuk, who had the last of the unflattering bits removed from their Internal Economy Committee report on Duffy after Stewart Olsen had the other two removed in subcommittee.
"I was not consulted on, and did not participate in, Nigel Wright’s decision to write a personal cheque to reimburse Senator Duffy’s expenses," Ben Perrin declared. "I have never communicated with the Prime Minister on this matter."
but
"Wright did tell a small circle of four, the documents show. This included three people in the Prime Minister’s Office: David van Hemmen, who was Mr. Wright’s executive assistant; Benjamin Perrin, then a PMO legal adviser, and Chris Woodcock, PMO director of issues management, whose job it is to handle hot political files."
IANAL but wouldn't it be kind of unusual for the PM's special legal advisor not to keep him abreast of illegal activities in his own office?
Shorter version of Horton's ITO with hi-liting:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/duffy-documents/article13036929/
Pitch perfect, as always!
Off topic - I too really miss "Pushed to the Left and Loving It". I've tried to discover what happened; do you know?
Anon : Excellent news. Spurred by your question, I just got off the phone with her. She's had a number of challenges to deal with this past year, both online and off, but she's well and will be back again in the near future to tell us all about it in her own words. And I think I'll just leave it there for the moment.
All right! Thanks for your quick action and prompt reply! And I'm so glad to hear that Ms. Dee is well. I look forward to reading her words again ~
Interesting fact here: Nigel Wright and Bruce Carson have the same lawyer, Patrick McCann:
https://twitter.com/afixedaddress/status/353182127203958784?refsrc=email
This guy, I presume: http://mccannandlyttle.com/lawyer-bios/patrick-mccann/
Anon : You're most welcome and thank you for the push - was great to talk to her. She, um, has certainly not lost her edge.
Holly : Huh. And Nigel Wright's other lawyer in the Duffy-do is Peter Mantas, the same one representing Steve's embattled RCMP/security detail/Ambassador to Jordan, Bruno Saccomani.
Hi deBeauxOs!
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