OTTAWA—A former lawyer for Stephen Harper says he believes the prime minister “directly approved” details of a secret plan with Mike Duffy to have Conservative party funds cover the senator’s questionable expenses and shield him from further investigation by independent auditors.

Benjamin Perrin said he interpreted a Feb. 22, 2013, email from Nigel Wright, then Harper’s chief of staff, that “We are good to go from the PM” to mean that Harper himself had endorsed the plan.

“My understanding from that email was that the prime minister himself had approved of the five points,” Perrin told an Ottawa court Friday.

“Clearly, I never directly communicated with the prime minister. But when Mr. Wright wrote ‘good to go from the PM,’ I took that to mean that the prime minister himself had directly approved that,” Perrin said.

“It certainly provided me with an assurance that there was no concern from my client whatsoever,” Perrin said, referring to the prime minister.

The five-point plan had been hammered out between the prime minister’s office and Duffy’s lawyer, Janice Payne, in February 2013. Under that scheme, Duffy would publicly announce that he intended to repay his disputed living expenses, according to emails entered into evidence at the trial.

In return, the prime minister’s office laid out five commitments:

It would vouch that the Senate’s internal economy committee would confirm that Duffy had been withdrawn from an ongoing audit by Deloitte. That deal also says that the committee will assure Duffy that his expenses are in order and that he will “not be the subject of any further activity or review by the Committee, the Senate, or any other party.”

Duffy had originally sought to have the RCMP explicitly named. But officials in the PMO balked at that wording and the two sides settled on “party” as broad enough.

There would be written acknowledgement that Duffy, who had a house in an Ottawa suburb, met all the requirements to sit as a senator for Prince Edward Island.

Because Duffy had been travelling on party business, “there will be an arrangement to keep him whole on the repayment. His legal fees will also be reimbursed.”

“The Party is open to keeping Sen. Duffy whole,” the agreement reads.

It gave the green light to allow Duffy to claim housing allowance in the future, if the rules were changed.

Finally, the PMO agreed to ensure that Conservative MPs and Senators spoke only off agreed media lines.

Wright believed that the Conservative Fund of Canada would pay Duffy’s disputed expenses first pegged at $32,000. But the party later balked when the expense bill rang in at $90,000. Wright, a former Bay St. financier, stepped in and cut a personal cheque to cover the costs himself.

Duffy has pleaded not guilty to 31 charges, including bribery, fraud and breach of trust, in connection to expenses he claimed as a senator and the later payment from Wright.

Asked about that five-point plan in court Friday, Perrin told Duffy lawyer Donald Bayne that there was little doubt that Harper had personally endorsed the strategy.

“Nigel Wright was explicit that the prime minister had approved the proposed responses to those five points?” Bayne asked.

“His statement was that ‘we were good to go’ from the prime minister in the context of that communication, this is how I interpreted that,” Perrin said.

“He, as the chief of staff, is speaking for the prime minister?” Bayne said.

“He explicitly was in that instance,” Perrin replied.

The “good to go” comment — and its implication that Harper was aware of details of the deal — has dogged the prime minister since it was first revealed in police documents.

During his own testimony earlier this week, Wright said that “good to go” meant that points he had wanted to raise with the prime minister had been raised.

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Wright did not spell out to Harper how Duffy’s bill would be repaid because it was the kind of detail he’d never “go into” with the prime minister, he told the court.

In November 2013, NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair asked Harper in the Commons what he meant when he said “good to go.”

“Good to go with Mr. Duffy repaying his own expenses, as he has acknowledged I told him to personally, as he told everybody he had done, including the Canadian public,” Harper replied.

During the back-and-forth discussions with Payne, Duffy sought assurance that the Conservative leadership in the Senate would not support any motion to have his housing and expense claims referred for further investigation by the auditors, the RCMP or any other party, email records show.

PMO staff balked at that request, with one aide saying “it would be a scandal to promise not to refer to the RCMP.”

Still, Perrin said Friday that at the time these discussions were unfolding, there was no thought that Duffy had committed a crime or even violated Senate rules.

“There was no whiff at this point of any possibility of criminality,” Perrin said.

And he said there was nothing illegal or improper in the five-point plan and said he would have spoken up if there was.

Perrin painted himself as a messenger, a bit actor in this drama who was often kept in the dark about key developments, such as discussions to have the Conservative party cover the outstanding expenses. Indeed, Perrin told the court that he felt “blindsided.”

He said he didn’t like handling the file but felt duty-bound to carry on because there was no other lawyer in the office.

“It was a very awkward position that I found myself in and I didn’t like it but as a lawyer I was obliged to continue to act,” Perrin said.

“Lawyers act for all kinds of clients,” Perrin said.

Duffy’s trial continues Monday.

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