OTTAWA—The Conservative party was going to cover the living expenses Sen. Mike Duffy had to pay back, but halted the plan when it was discovered he owed nearly three times as much as originally thought.

That was what lawyers for Nigel Wright, former chief of staff to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, told the RCMP last month when they met police to discuss the investigation into his $90,172 gift to the troubled senator from Prince Edward Island, according to documents released by the Ottawa courthouse Thursday.

They also told the Mounties that Wright was not the only person in the Prime Minister’s Office who was aware of the generous arrangement, but noted Harper was not in the loop.

RCMP Cpl. Greg Horton shared the details in a document known as an “Information to Obtain a production order,” filed in Ottawa June 24, when he laid out his grounds for believing that records kept by the Senate administration would serve as evidence in a criminal investigation into allegations of breach of trust and fraud on the government.

“I believe that Senator Duffy has demonstrated a pattern of filing fraudulent expense claims,” Horton, a 21-year-veteran of the Mounties who is currently assigned to the Sensitive and International Investigations unit, wrote in the document that also contained new details of Duffy’s alleged double-dipping.

The RCMP began investigating allegations of inappropriate expenses claimed by Duffy, Mac Harb and Patrick Brazeau in March, Horton wrote. That was two months before the Senate internal economy committee tabled its reports based on the findings of reviews by external auditors at Deloitte, which detailed how much time Duffy spent at his declared primary residence, a cottage in Cavendish, P.E.I.

The probe has been dubbed Project Amble.

The document states Patrick McCann and Peter Mantas, lawyers for Wright, met two RCMP officers on June 19 and advised the investigators that as chief of staff, Wright had the role of managing the Conservative Party of Canada, “part of which was to deal with matters that could cause embarrassment.”

Horton notes investigators, as of the time he filed the document, had not yet interviewed Wright.

According to the Horton’s account, the lawyers said Wright believed Duffy should repay the living expenses associated with his home in Kanata, about 22 kilometres from Parliament Hill, and that the senator was “concerned that he did not have the money to cover the reimbursement.”

“The Conservative Party was initially going to repay the money for Duffy, from a Conservative fund, when it was believed that the amount he owed was approximately $32,000,” said the document, adding the fund is under the control of Conservative Sen. Irving Gerstein.

Gerstein is chair of the Conservative Fund Canada, which is the fundraising arm of the party, and chief agent of the Conservative Party of Canada.

“When it was realized that the cost was actually $90,000, it was too much money to ask the Conservative Party to cover,” Horton wrote in the document, based on the information provided by Wright’s lawyers.

“Wright then offered to cover the cost for Duffy, believing it was the proper ethical decision that taxpayers not be out that amount of money,” said the document, adding that there was no written contract between Wright and the senator.

The payment also came with two conditions: “pay the money back right away (and) stop talking to the media about it,” said the document.

A subsequent letter the RCMP received from Mantas June 21 informed the Mounties that Wright remembered having told four people “he would personally provide funds” to reimburse the expenses claimed by Duffy.

They were Gerstein; David van Hemmen, the executive assistant to the chief of staff; Chris Woodcock, who is director of issues management in the PMO; and Benjamin Perrin, a lawyer who used to work in the PMO.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Van Hemmen declined to comment, messages to Perrin were not returned and neither Woodcock nor Gerstein could be reached Thursday. Duffy also didn’t respond to a request for comment.

“This file was handled by Nigel Wright and he has taken sole responsibility. The affidavit is clear that the Prime Minister was not aware of the payment,” Andrew MacDougall, spokesman for Harper, said in an emailed statement when asked about the allegations Thursday.

“The Conservative Fund did not pay or reimburse any of the ineligible expenses,” Fred DeLorey, spokesman for the Conservative Party of Canada, wrote in an emailed statement Thursday.

The letter from Mantas included a scanned copy of a bank draft for $90,172 made out to Janice Payne, a lawyer for Duffy, on March 25.

The Senate internal economy committee received a letter from Payne, along with a cheque from Duffy for that amount, the next day.

The document filed by Horton also said Wright, through his lawyers, claimed no one directed him to make the offer, that he knew Duffy but was not his friend and did not make similar offers to other senators also under investigation.

“Wright does not expect any of the money back,” Horton wrote.

The document also said Duffy had told Wright he was worried that by not claiming a primary residence in P.E.I, his Senate seat would be in jeopardy and Wright reassured him this would not be the case.

The document also sheds more light on how Duffy claimed to be on Senate business — either in Ottawa or out of town — on days he was actually helping out Conservative candidates in the 2011 election, having expenses reimbursed by both the Senate and local campaigns.

For example, the RCMP determined that Duffy had claimed $2,374 from the Senate to cover flights, taxis and partial per diems for what he claimed were “meetings in the region and in New Brunswick” from Apr. 12 to 21, 2011.

Elections Canada records, which the RCMP also looked at, show Duffy was also reimbursed $2,130 in hotel, gas and rental car costs by the campaigns for seven Conservative candidates for whom he made appearances during that period.

“It would appear that the purpose of Duffy’s trip was to campaign in the federal election, and that the cost of the flights to and from the region should not have been charged to the Senate,” Horton wrote, although it was unclear whether Duffy, who had been late in filing the expense claims to the Senate, ever received the money.

The RCMP has ordered the Senate administration to produce credit card statements, mobile phone records and other documents relating to Duffy’s expenses and residency declarations dating back to the time he was appointed senator in December 2008, which Horton said the Mounties would use to conduct their own forensic audit.

Read more about: