Nigel Wright, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s former chief of staff, took the stand Wednesday at the Mike Duffy trial to begin explaining his role in the controversial Conservative scheme to repay the embattled senator’s disallowed housing and expense claims.

Wright’s identify has develop into inextricably linked with Duffy’s case because it was revealed that, whereas serving because the prime minister’s prime staffer, Wright minimize a private cheque to cowl a number of the Duffy’s questionable expense claims.

Wright told the court he had made a significant error by misjudging how the check would be interpreted.

“The objective is to put an end to the ongoing questions about his expenses”, reads the document, penned by Chris Woodcock, Harper’s former director of issues management.

Wright told the court he initially thought Duffy owed about $32,000 to cover expense claims, and that he had planned to cover that, along with legal costs, using money from the Conservative Party coffers.

Trudeau, however, suggested at a campaign event in Regina that instead of looking at all the mistakes that were made, he wants to move in a different direction – focusing in particular on the economy and the middle class. His testimony could provide additional context on what led to the $90,000 transaction.

Wright was pressed for details about an email that suggested he had the green light from the prime minister.

Wright also said his view was Sen.

Wright, who ultimately transferred $90,000 to Duffy to facilitate the repayment of funds, was investigated by the RCMP but never charged.

The emails introduced by Bayne also contain more indications of just how wide a circle of key aides were in the loop about the plan to have someone else repay Duffy’s expenses, in exchange for him telling the public he had done it. The Conservative-appointed Duffy has pleaded not guilty to all the charges. Harper initially said Wright had resigned but amid increasing uproar over the case, later said he had fired him. “Is bad”, Wright responded to Woodcock and others, after having been informed of Duffy’s intentions.

“I was doing a good deed, and this is sort of Matthew 6″, Wright, now based in London, said Thursday in Ottawa. Mike Duffy didn’t pay back his own contested expenses.

“Sen. Duffy would make this easier if he did not have outbursts in Senate caucus that male Senators oppose anything that helps him save face”, he wrote.

Liberal leader Justin Trudeau’s response was muted.

June 3, 2013: The Conservative leader in the Senate says she intends to ask the auditor general to look into all the expenses of the upper chamber.

“I felt this was an outrageous fraud on the taxpayer”, Wright testified. Officials in the Prime Minister’s Office balked at that request. Defence lawyer Donald Bayne says Duffy operated within the often-fuzzy Senate rules.

“I told (Harper) that Sen”.

“Did you convey to the prime minister that there was an agreement that the party made the payment at that time?” See his tweets in real time here.