The Privy Council Office has informed the RCMP that it has âfoundâ emails from former PMO lawyer Benjamin Perrin that it had previously said were deleted.
In a letter to the RCMPâs assistant commissioner Gilles Michaud dated Dec. 1, the PCO said it has informed the Prime Ministerâs Office that emails from Perrin -- who allegedly helped broker a deal between Nigel Wright and Sen. Mike Duffy -- were not deleted following Perrinâs departure from the PMO in March 2013.
The letter states the account was not deleted, as is standard practice, but in fact frozen due to unrelated litigation.
According to the PCO, the email account came to light in recent days, after the RCMP sought further confirmation from the PMOâs counsel that Perrinâs emails were not available from any other source.
âIn response to this inquiry, on November 29, 2013 we found that Mr. Perrinâs emails had in fact been retained due to a litigation hold in an unrelated matter. On learning that Mr. Perrinâs emails were in fact available, we informed the PMO on November 30, 2013.â
Perrin is currently the subject of a complaint filed by a University of Ottawa law professor, who claims that Perrin and Duffy lawyer Janice Payne violated professional ethics for their alleged roles in a secret deal that saw Wright, Prime Minister Stephen Harperâs former chief of staff, give Duffy a $90,000 cheque to cover the senatorâs ineligible housing expenses.
The RCMP is investigating the transaction. In an affidavit filed last month, Cpl. Greg Horton alleges that Wright broke the law by giving Duffy the money.
According to the letter, the PMO asked the PCO to make available to police âthe emails of certain individual requested by the RCMP,â including Perrinâs, in September 2013. It was at that time that the PCO âadvisedâ the PMO that Perrinâs emails had been deleted from a server âand were no longer available.â
But Sundayâs letter explains that the PCO was wrong in making that claim. The PCO apologized for any inconvenience âit may have caused.â
âWe regret that we previously failed, even if inadvertently, to accurately inform you and the PMO about the availability of Mr. Perrinâs emails.â
According to a sworn RCMP affidavit, an email trail suggests Perrin and Conservative Party lawyer Arthur Hamilton were involved in the Duffy-Wright deal.
None of the allegations in the affidavit have been tested or proven in court.