Stephen Harperâs former chief of staff says he didnât lie to the prime minister when he told him that Mike Duffy would be repaying his expenses and that he didnât want the senator to go ahead with an audit because it might hurt the Conservatives politically.
Duffyâs lawyer, Donald Bayne, asked Nigel Wright on the stand Monday why he lied to Harper when he told him that the former Conservative senator would repay the money, when, in fact, the Conservative Party had originally agreed to foot the bill.
âI donât think I lied to the prime minister,â Wright answered.
âI just felt it wasnât on my list of things I needed to check with him,â Wright added.
Wright ended up personally repaying Duffyâs expenses after it turned out they totalled $90,000 -- not $32,000 as originally estimated.
Bayne also asked Wright why he was okay with the fact that Duffy went on television and said he had repaid the money when that wasnât true.
âThis is what he required in order to make the repayment,â Wright said, adding, âI thought the repayment itself was critical.â
Bayne has repeatedly suggested that Wright forced Duffy into a PMO-orchestrated plan to repay the money, even though the senator wanted to defend himself.
On Monday, Bayne said that Duffy was âquite willingâ to co-operate with an audit by the firm Deloitte and to âlet the chips fall.â
Bayne asked Wright, âWhy didnât you let him?â
Wright said that he didnât want Duffy to defend his claims publically because it could hurt the Conservatives politically, telling the court âthe expenses were wrong.â
Bayne also referred to an email Duffy wrote to his lawyer Janice Payne in February 2013, saying that Wright and others in the Prime Ministerâs Office had worked out a âscenarioâ for him that includes âcash for the repayment.â
Duffy wrote that Wright didnât make a direct threat, but one that âseems obviousâ -- the senator either had to agree to the deal or be thrown out of the Red Chamber based on a residency issue.
Wright told the court Duffyâs characterization of their conversation was inaccurate and that there was âno implicit or explicit threat.â
Wright testified he simply didnât find Duffyâs argument that his true home was in Prince Edward Island âpersuasive.â
Wright said he didnât want the former Conservative senator to publicly defend himself by claiming that P.E.I. was his primary residence. The government âwould not stand behindâ Duffy if he claimed that he lived in P.E.I, he said.
Wright said from an âissues managementâ perspective, it was âbetter for Sen. Duffyâ if people believed he had paid back the money himself.
He also said that Duffy did not have caucus support.
âThere were members who were quite upset with these expenses.â
Bayne suggested that Duffy, defending his expenses, âaffected the government reputation and your objective was to get this done quickly.â
Wright agreed.
Last week, Wright testified he viewed paying Duffyâs expenses as an âobligationâ and he believed he was doing the right thing.
But Bayne hasnât pulled any punches during his cross-examination, suggesting Wright actions werenât a âgood deed,â but rather a political cover-up.
Bayne has been arguing that Duffy resisted the repayment plan and was forced to go along with it against his will.
Wright said Monday that he had to be persistent with Duffy, but the senator agreed to the plan on his own.
Wright said that even if a Deloitte audit of Duffyâs expenses concluded they were âtechnically OK,â that wouldnât âachieve what I wanted, which was to have expenses repaid.â
âIt was not what was technically OK, it is whether itâs right or wrong.â Wright said.
Last week, Wright told the court that Harper only knew in âbroad termsâ he was working on getting Duffy to repay his expenses.
Harper didnât know of the original plan to have the Conservative Party pay, nor that Wright himself ended up handing over the $90,000, he testified.
Harper has maintained he had no knowledge of the Wright-Duffy deal.
During a campaign stop in Fredericton, N.B., on Monday, Harper didnât directly answer questions about the involvement of other PMO staff, which is detailed in numerous emails tabled in court.
how he felt about the fact that his current chief of staff, Ray Novak, âknowingly allowed (him) to repeat a lie for months that Mike Duffy had repaid his own expenses when that wasn't the case.â
âI've been very clear about this,â Harper responded.
âI hold Mr. Duffy accountable for not having repaid his expenses, and Mr. Wright responsible for those expenses not having been repaid. It was those two gentlemen's obligation to make sure this was done correctly. They did not, and they are solely responsible, and that's why they are being held accountable.â
Novak was among those who was copied on emails related to the plan for to repay Duffyâs expenses, including one sent by Wright to Novak and PMO lawyer Benjamin Perrin on March 23, 2013 that said in part, "I will send my cheque on Monday."
Duffyâs lawyer suggested Tuesday that he would not call Novak as a witness.
Criminal defence lawyer Leo Russomanno explained on CTV Power Play that âcalling a witness as part of your case thatâs not necessarily friendly to your client is a very dangerous proposition ⌠because he canât lead the witness the way that Mr. Bayne has been doing so the last few days to Mr. Wright.â
âIf you think you have a witness that isnât going to give you what you want and isnât going to be friendly to your case, youâre basically just going to provide them with forum to bury your client,â Russomanno said.
Live updates
Follow along with our live blog for updates from CTV's Katie Simpson at the courthouse in Ottawa for the Mike Duffy trial: