The Privy Council Office has informed the RCMP that it has āfoundā emails from former PMO lawyer Benjamin Perrin that it had previously said were deleted.
In a letter to the RCMPās assistant commissioner Gilles Michaud dated Dec. 1, the PCO said it has informed the Prime Ministerās Office that emails from Perrin -- who allegedly helped broker a deal between Nigel Wright and Sen. Mike Duffy -- were not deleted following Perrinās departure from the PMO in March 2013.
The letter states the account was not deleted, as is standard practice, but in fact frozen due to unrelated litigation.
According to the PCO, the email account came to light in recent days, after the RCMP sought further confirmation from the PMOās counsel that Perrinās emails were not available from any other source.
āIn response to this inquiry, on November 29, 2013 we found that Mr. Perrinās emails had in fact been retained due to a litigation hold in an unrelated matter. On learning that Mr. Perrinās emails were in fact available, we informed the PMO on November 30, 2013.ā
Perrin is currently the subject of a complaint filed by a University of Ottawa law professor, who claims that Perrin and Duffy lawyer Janice Payne violated professional ethics for their alleged roles in a secret deal that saw Wright, Prime Minister Stephen Harperās former chief of staff, give Duffy a $90,000 cheque to cover the senatorās ineligible housing expenses.
The RCMP is investigating the transaction. In an affidavit filed last month, Cpl. Greg Horton alleges that Wright broke the law by giving Duffy the money.
According to the letter, the PMO asked the PCO to make available to police āthe emails of certain individual requested by the RCMP,ā including Perrinās, in September 2013. It was at that time that the PCO āadvisedā the PMO that Perrinās emails had been deleted from a server āand were no longer available.ā
But Sundayās letter explains that the PCO was wrong in making that claim. The PCO apologized for any inconvenience āit may have caused.ā
āWe regret that we previously failed, even if inadvertently, to accurately inform you and the PMO about the availability of Mr. Perrinās emails.ā
According to a sworn RCMP affidavit, an email trail suggests Perrin and Conservative Party lawyer Arthur Hamilton were involved in the Duffy-Wright deal.
None of the allegations in the affidavit have been tested or proven in court.
