Nigel Wright Testifies: Didn’t Tell PM about Duffy Payout

Peter Muggeridge | August 12th, 2015

In the first day of his appearance at the fraud trial of Senator Mike Duffy, Nigel Wright testified that he did not inform Prime Minister Stephen Harper about the $90,000 cheque he wrote to cover Duffy’s inappropriate expense claims.

When asked by Crown prosecutors if he had informed the Prime Minister about the plan to pay off Duffy’s expenses in order to make the whole problem disappear, Wright responded:

“I told him [Stephen Harper] that Sen. Duffy was agreeing to repay. I gave him in very broad terms, not in detail, the media lines. I think I stressed with the prime minister that we would be saying that Sen. Duffy would be saying he had made a mistake in his claims, that it would be mistake, not wrongdoing, and that’s what we would be saying.

The trial resumes tomorrow as Wright will take the stand to face what’s expected to be a gruelling cross examination from Duffy’s lawyer, Donald Bayne.

Follow the trial live:

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