NDP’s ethics critic Charlie Angus has written a letter to the RCMP commissioner, asking whether the Mounties will lay charges against Nigel Wright “given the details that have now come to light” at Mike Duffy’s criminal trial.
In the letter, Angus says Bob Paulson had assured him last April that the RCMP’s reasons for not laying any charges against Wright would be “made clear.”
“Since then, significant new evidence has come to light at trial that raises new questions about Mr. Wright’s role in the scandal,” Angus wrote.
During his testimony over the past five days, Wright has said he personally wrote a $90,000 cheque to cover Duffy’s disputed expenses. He said he made a “quick” decision to do so after the original plan to have the Conservative Party provide the money fell apart, and that he thought he was doing the right thing.
Duffy’s lawyer, however, has accused Wright of engaging in a political cover-up and trying to interfere with an external and confidential Deloitte audit of Duffy’s expenses.
In his letter to Paulson, Angus wrote that Wright’s testimony has “painted a picture of numerous senior staff in the Prime Minister’s Office working together to try and cover-up this scandal.”
“Given the details that have now come to light about the $90,000 dollars Mr. Wright paid to Mr. Duffy and the involvement of at least a dozen staff in the Prime Minister’s office, I am writing to ask whether the RCMP will now be laying charges against Nigel Wright,” Angus wrote.
“I am also asking, based on this new information, whether Ray Novak or any other staff working in the Prime Minister’s Office should be investigated for their role working with Mr. Wright in relation to this matter.”
Last April, the RCMP said that the evidence gathered in the Duffy case “does not support criminal charges against Mr. Wright.”
