The PMO released a statement Friday defending Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s chief of staff Nigel Wright after he gifted disgraced senator Mike Duffy $90,172 to pay off inappropriate housing allowance expenses. The gift is now under scrutiny for breaking more senate rules and certainly contradicts Harper’s attitude in 2006.

Given recent controversy surrounding then-Conservative senator Mike Duffy’s 2011 campaign expenses, the senate leader for the government has asked for a second audit into his expenses. The audit will determine if the senate business Duffy claims on April 27, 28, 29, 2011 are legitimate or if they represent double dipping of campaign charges declared in a Conservative campaign invoice.

Recent senate reports obtained by CTV reveal the final copies had omitted many of the crucial details that surround disgraced senator Mike Duffy’s scandal. The edits turn certainties into uncertainties and flat out omit other parts, key to answering the many questions floating around these days.

What started as a $90,172 claim of inappropriate expenses seen as an outrage as part of abusive senate behaviour quickly escalated to a scandal with many more questions than answers. How can you possibly be confused about where you live without a motive? Why would the Prime Minister’s right hand man give a disgraced senator a $90,172 cheque? Did Duffy double dip his 2011 campaign expenses and claim them as senate business? Let’s take a look at the affair from how it unfolded.

A source has told CTV News former Conservative senator Mike Duffy tried to lobby the Canada’s Radio-Television Telecommunications Commission to aid Conservative news company Sun News in their bid to force Canadians to pay for their channel.

Controversy may be mounting around the now independent senator Mike Duffy but as far as Prime Minister Stephen Harper is concerned, his chief of staff Nigel Wright still has his full confidence. There is no word on whether Wright offered his resignation but it’s great to know that a scandal that acts to orchestrate a cover up of a senator’s wrong doing is fine by “tough on crime” PM Harper.

After accepting a $90,172 cheque from Stephen Harper’s chief of staff, Nigel Wright, to repay inappropriate use of the senate’s housing allowance and recent news that he may have claimed campaign expenses as senate business in April 2011, disgraced Conservative senator Mike Duffy has resigned from the Conservative caucus and will sit as an independent in the senate.

As if the housing allowance scandal and secretly accepting a $90,172 cheque from the Prime Minister’s chief of staff wasn’t bad enough, now we learn Conservative Senator Mike Duffy charged Canadians for senate business while he campaigned for the Conservatives in Toronto in April 2011.

Last night, CTV News broke the story revealing Conservative senator Mike Duffy’s repayment of fraudulent housing allowance claims was orchestrated by the PMO. Up to date, we learn Stephen Harper’s chief of staff Nigel Wright personally paid Duffy $90,172 to cover for the housing allowance repayment. Senate rules reveal the gift may have broken conflict of interest rules while the PMO defends the action.

According to private emails extracted by CTV News, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s chief of staff Nigel Wright and Conservative Senator Mike Duffy made a secret deal during the audit to repay $90,172 in fraudulent housing expenses. The intent was to calm public outrage over the abuses of taxpayers’ money but has only raised more questions in a scandal that continues to dig deeper into the Harper government’s integrity.