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But then, according to Bayne, “the wheels began to fall off” the secret PMO-Duffy arrangement, risking politically damaging fallout.

Shortly after Duffy had publicly issued his agreed mea culpa, Sen. David Tkachuk and other senior Conservative Senate leaders asked Deloitte to keep Duffy in the audit.

A frustrated Wright then turned to Sen. Irving Gerstein, chairman of the Conservative Fund, which is partly taxpayer-supported, to work through “senior contacts” at Deloitte.

“The outcome we are pushing for is for Deloitte to report publicly that IF Kanata were the primary residence then the amount owing would be the $90 thousand figure and that since Sen. Duffy has committed to repay this amount then Deloitte’s work in determining primary residence is no longer needed,” wrote Wright to members of his team.

Wright testified that all he wanted was to have Gerstein communicate with his fellow senators to bring clarity to what had become a confused situation.

“I just wanted him to fix the broken telephone problem,” Wright told the court.

“You definitely wanted him to fix something,” responded Bayne.

In earlier testimony, Bayne told the trial that senior PMO staff reacted with “glee” as Duffy finally appeared on TV and recited the lines they had scripted for him – lines they anticipated would fulfil an order from the prime minister to close down the embarrassing spending scandal.

Duffy has pleaded not guilty to 31 charges of fraud, breach of trust and bribery. Wright has repeatedly said that his primary concern was getting Duffy to pay back expenses he had “wrongly” claimed.