Tracy Watkins suggests that this might be the case. This could be extremely bad news for the Labour First (New Zealand Second) Government.
Fallout from the Winston Peters inquiries could spread as the Serious Fraud Office looks set to get embroiled in a privileges committee inquiry into a $100,000 donation.
Mr Peters, under huge pressure to explain conflicting accounts of how the donation from expatriate billionaire Owen Glenn happened, is understood to have demanded that a letter from the SFO to the privileges committee inquiry be heard in public and that he be given a public platform to respond.
Today's meeting was still listed as a closed session last night, suggesting there had been no change to the inquiry's plans to hear the SFO letter in secret today.
The Glenn donation was specifically excluded from a SFO inquiry into NZ First donations funnelled into the previously unknown Spencer Trust.
But the SFO made preliminary inquiries into the Glenn donation and its investigations into the Spencer Trust are likely to have covered ground dealt with in evidence to the privileges committee - including matters central to that inquiry, such as payments to Mr Peters' lawyer, Brian Henry.
