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Though Wright left the PMO more than two years ago, he told the trial that he is still in contact with Novak and, pressed by Bayne, said he last communicated via BBM with him about two weeks ago

No record remains of the conversation, said Wright. Bayne did not ask what the two men discussed.

Wright himself testified Tuesday that he knew there was a chance his $90,000 personal payment to cover Duffy’s Senate expenses might not remain a secret, but said he didn’t expect the public impact to be as great as it became.

“My view was when I decided to write the cheque myself that it could well become known and if that were to be the case it would be embarrassing,” he said. “But I had no concept of the impact it would have or the connotations that would be put on it.”

Wright has testified that he paid Duffy’s bill in an act of altruism and wanted it kept secret in accordance with the teachings of the Bible.

(Duffy’s tab was originally to be paid out of the taxpayer-supported Conservative Fund but the controllers of the fund apparently balked when the bill suddenly rose from about $32,000 to $90,000. The fund did, however, pay a $14,000 legal bill for the senator).

Wright’s “biblical” explanation was met with skepticism by Bayne, who says the cheque from the independently wealthy Wright was nothing more than part of an elaborate political damage control strategy concocted by Harper’s senior aides.

Wright, 52, spent much of his testimony Tuesday sparring with Bayne over his role in a confidential Senate-ordered audit of Duffy’s expenses. Bayne accuses Wright of attempting to influence the outcome of the audit and ignoring its highly sensitive nature.