It's what referred to as "message discipline," Perrin says. "To make sure people stick to their talking points."
I know we all knew this was happening, but it's still striking to hear it discussed so matter-of-factly. "We tell all 225 or so members of our caucus to give you the exact same answer and never to think for themselves. So what?"
Payne and Duffy also demanded that PMO "keep him whole on the repayment." Payne's email suggested Duffy's ineligibility was due to his time on the road for party activity. Perrin says he hadn't heard that from her before this email.
Bayne is objecting that the Crown wants Perrin to speculate on discussions he wasn't part of between Duffy and Wright. Bayne is irked by the word "demands" because Perrin doesn't know the genesis of the requests.
Judge tells Crown to move on. Now we're looking at the part about caucus sticking to media lines (the last reference was specific to the senators on the internal economy committee. And with that, we are on our morning break.
We're back! Perrin forwarded Duffy and Payne's email to Wright. Woodcock, Rogers and Lecce are cc'd on Wright's response. He suggests some responses to the demands, as the Crown called them. Oh, Perrin feels these aren't suggested responses, but instructions from his client.
On the question of Duffy being removed from the Deloitte audit, Wright wrote that the internal economy steering committee would determine the secondary residence issue would be closed after repayment.
On the media lines, Wright wrote that "the media lines will be accurate and we only want these senators providing accurate comments." So, basically yes, they could promise the Conservatives on internal economy, and then-Senate govt leader Marjory LeBreton, would use the PMO talking points.
Wright wrote that he was specific with Duffy that a "senior government source" would make a statement the same day Duffy did to say there's no doubt he is qualified to sit as a senator from PEI.
As to the idea that Duffy's trouble came from being on the road for the party, Wright wrote "without acknowledging the accuracy of the premise of this item," the party was open to keeping Duffy whole.
Perrin replied to Wright, Woodcock, Rogers and Lecce the next morning after speaking to Payne. Perrin says he proposed a 10 p.m. conference call the night he got her email, but she preferred the next morning. We're onto Friday, Feb. 22, 2013 now.
Crown asks if this is the only matter Perrin was engaged in on Feb. 21. Perrin says he had taken the day off but was dealing with issues by email. He and his daughter went to yoga for two-year-olds, which he says was incredibly cute.
He also got in trouble with his wife for working so much on his day off. Everyone who has ever worked on the Hill feels you, dude.
Crown: so you spoke with Ms. Payne after the yoga class? Perrin: before. They don't make them do yoga before 8 a.m.
Perrin says he read Wright's points verbatim to Payne over the phone. He says he could tell she was taking notes.On the point about the party keeping Duffy whole, it sounds like Perrin thought that was about reimbursing Duffy for those travel claims, not the whole $32,000 they then thought he owed.
And as we all know now, that $32,000 became more than $90,000, which Senator Irving Gerstein, the chair of the Conservative Fund, balked at paying. So Wright dug into his own substantial bank account to give the money to Duffy to pay it back.
Perrin says that morning on the phone, Payne didn't respond to any of what the PMO team had to say. He thought she was generally satisfied. Perrin's email to the PMO gang says "I noted this is all conditional on agreement on the statement and communications bounds being respected by the senator."
Perrin tells the Crown that the conversation was cordial.
Wright responded by email: "I now have the go-ahead on point three, with a couple of stipulations" (this is the point about legal fees and keeping Duffy whole).
Wright wanted an explicit commitment that Duffy that he wouldn't tell anyone about the arrangement, and wanted to know exactly what Duffy owed. He also wanted the legal fees capped at $12,000, and to make sure the payment went to Payne's firm.
Shortly after, Wright emailed at 12:12 p.m. ET "We are good to go from the PM once Ben has his confirmation from Payne."
Perrin spoke to Payne shortly after, and reported by email that she wanted it all in writing, but Perrin explained "that was not happening. We aren't selling a car or settling a lawsuit here."
Back to Wright's 1139 a.m. email about the commitment not to tell anyone. Perrin says he doesn't remember what Payne said, but she must have agreed. "If she had said I'm going to call the Globe and Mail tomorrow," he would have mentioned that to Wright, he says.
Bayne objects because Perrin is speculating since he can't recall his conversation about that point. Crown rephrases, and Perrin clarifies, but Bayne isn't satisfied. The judge says Bayne is welcome to make that argument, and allows the question and response.
Regarding the email where Perrin says they won't put the agreement in writing, he says it wasn't a legal agreement and wasn't at all confident with email communications being confidential.
Perrin says Wright had already told him to have these conversations by phone too.
Crown: Did Perrin tell Payne "look Janice, you're going to have to capitulate on this?" Perrin: No. (this is likely in response to Bayne's questioning of Wright over whether Duffy was forced to accept this agreement, including the $90,000)
Perrin says the timing was sensitive because they wanted Duffy to make the announcement in PEI, and weren't sure whether there'd be a camera. He says he assumes it was also about hitting the evening newscasts.
Perrin is explaining that Wright's 1139 a.m. email contributed to his understanding that Duffy would repay his own expenses because of the reference by Wright to "a good portion" of the funds to go to Payne would be "in payment of their fees."
Somebody in the liveblog comments (which are unfortunately not turned on, but I can see them) was asking about the response by Harper on residency. I don't know where exactly that is, but I'd start with the Crown's emails.
Perrin is going over the email discussion of the media Q&A PMO was preparing with Payne. She had inserted a line about Duffy not claiming an allowance for the house in Ottawa "until after the rules have been clarified by the Senate." PMO thought it should say something like "unless the rules of the Senate were to change, making it clear" Duffy was in compliance.
You guys are the best readers, by the way. I'm getting emails and comments about grammar and language. Thanks for giving us a reason to liveblog.
Perrin says he was pressing Payne for a response because they needed to finalize "the products" imminently. We're now at 2:41 p.m. ET on the day Duffy was to do the interview about his expenses, making it 3:41 p.m. in PEI.
Statement went to Payne with proposed revisions, and she agreed at 2:44 p.m. ET. Perrin then gave her a clean document with the revisions included.
If you're following along at home, we are on page 159 of the Crown's pdf of the emails.
At 314 p.m., Payne emailed about the proposed lines until the committee met. She said "this is a problem. There is to be no suggestion of an error by MD. They need to adapt to our revision." Crown asks if Perrin told her she needed to capitulate. Perrin says the PMO agreed to make the change Payne insisted upon.
the lines were changed to "he has indicated he will be taking steps to correct any possible error" for pre-committee meeting, and "Senator Duffy has taken steps to correct any possible error" after the committee meeting.
At 3:27 p.m. Wright said PMO was ok with that. "We should GO," he wrote.
There was lots of "good to go" going around that day. Which I can no longer use away from work without feeling it is forever tied to PMO.
