Rogue Staffers Threatened To Sue When The PMO Took Control Of The “Independent” Mike Duffy Investigation

Publicly, the Senate put on a show of independence. Then-Conservative Senate leader Marjory Lebreton insisted “I ran my own shop.” When Duffy and other Senators were accused of filing tens of thousands of dollars in inappropriate housing expenses, the Senate’s internal economy committee investigated.

But new emails show the PMO was quarterbacking everything behind the scenes. The emails were entered into evidence as Stephen Harper’s former chief of staff Nigel Wright testified at the Duffy trial.

Despite the Conservatives controlling a majority of the Senators on the investigation committee, emails show they were forced to make the Duffy audit public.

“Apparently the clerk and staffer threatened legal action if the full original audit/report was not released,” wrote senior PMO staffer Chris Woodcock. “Our members felt the staffer would leak the report.”

“The PM mentioned to me that this report should say that all Senators are qualified to sit in the Senate on the basis of owning a residence,” wrote Woodcock.

In other words, Harper was saying Duffy can’t be kicked out of the Senate for not being a real P.E.I. Senator, since Duffy technically owns property there.

Perhaps more importantly, the PMO shut down the study altogether. The two staffers who threatened to sue wanted the investigation to continue. Woodcock directed senators that this was “out of the question.”

“I objected to the word ‘interim’ and said they need to position this as the Committee’s (only) report on senators’ residency for expense purposes,” Woodcock wrote about a meeting with David Tkatchuk, the senator in charge of the report.

Woodcock insisted there could only be one report and Tkatchuk agreed, according to the emails.

“He has committed to this and to showing me any changes they want to make to the report before it is adopted,” wrote Woodcock.

PMO staffer Patrick Rogers wrote about Conservative Senator Irving Gerstein having “a channel into Deloitte” who is “open and is happy to continue assisting us.”

Harper’s chief of staff, Nigel Wright, wrote about making “a proposal” to have Duffy dropped from the Deloitte review if he paid back all the money he owed. Deloitte never went along with this plan.

Wright was never charged, but Duffy was hit with 31 charges including bribery for accepting the cheque, fraud and breach of trust.

Wright is now testifying at the Duffy trial this week.

Original Article
Source: buzzfeed.com/
Author: Paul McLeod