Police confirm Brash email leak an inside job

Written By: - Date published: 10:42 am, April 16th, 2008 - 19 comments
Categories: bill english, election 2008, john key - Tags: , ,

Police have closed their investigation into the theft of e-mails from former National Party leader Dr Don Brash and have announced that they have been unsuccessful in identifying those responsible for the thefts.

Despite Brash’s ongoing insistence to the contrary, the police have said that they’ve been able to rule out the possibility than an ‘external computer hacker’ was responsible.

They went on to comment,

“There are strong indications that the e-mails were in printed form at the time of the theft, but with the thefts perhaps happening at any time over the two- year period it is very likely that they were stolen during several incidents”.

So the evidence still points to someone close to Brash, inside the Nats, with wide-ranging access on multiple occasions – almost definitely a senior figure in the English camp. I wonder how worried Key is that he’ll get the same thing sprung on him.

UPDATE: Nicky Hager, Author of The Hollow Men, is rightly demanding an apology from National, who have repeatedly accused him of lying about the leaked emails.

 “I believe the National Party used the allegations of theft, and thereby wasted police resources, to try to distract attention away from the serious revelations in the book.”

19 comments on “Police confirm Brash email leak an inside job ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. Daveo 1
    16 April 2008 at 11:39 am

    Does this mean the right will stop moaning about ‘stolen emails’ every time the Hollow Men is brought up?

  2. Steve Pierson 2
    16 April 2008 at 11:41 am

    National knows who leaked.

    The whole story of an outside thief was such a blatant lie. It was obviously an insider job. In fact, Hagar mentions six senior nats as sources.

  3. Robinsod 3
    16 April 2008 at 12:01 pm

    Hager isn’t being completely straight on this. From what I understand he did get confirmation and some supporting evidence from the six but the bulk of the documents came from another source. And there were three copies of each of them.

  4. Tane 4
    16 April 2008 at 12:08 pm

    I’ve got to give National some credit for the stolen emails story, even if it is backhanded.

    The story was a masterpiece in misdirection – they knew that by keeping on message and whining about how the emails were stolen, media would ignore Hager’s revelations and focus on the sexier and far less disturbing story of the mysterious email hacker. It worked a treat.

    Now that their spin is discredited it doesn’t matter to the Nats. Like Mark Twain said, by the time the truth has got its shoes on the lie is already half way round the block.

  5. outofbed 5
    16 April 2008 at 12:27 pm

    I wonder how worried Key is that he’ll get the same thing sprung on him.

    It might have been Key! he had the most to gain from discrediting Brash And we know he will do and say anything if he thinks it will make him PM 🙂

  6. all_your_base 6
    16 April 2008 at 12:45 pm

    outofbed – I disagree. I think Key would have been happy to bide his time. Brash and Key are cut from similar cloth though Key’s doing his best to appear more moderate. There’s no doubt in my mind that the leak came from someone in the English faction. Rich perhaps? The reason I say Key must be worried is that the insider wasn’t leaking to put Key in, they were leaking to put English in. And remember there’s no love lost between English and Key – it was Key who changed his vote in caucus at the last minute to help Brash roll English. English won’t have forgotten that. No doubt Key will still be watching his back.

  7. outofbed 7
    16 April 2008 at 1:00 pm

    AYB It was slightly tongue in cheek.
    Its interesting you mention Rich I am of the opinion that there is more to Rich giving up parliament then meets the eye we haven’t therefore, heard the last of the matter
    The English faction must be so pissed off with Key’s performance and really worried about the leadership debates to come.
    Maybe as suggested by a commentator on PA English et al should split of and form “the country party” To be to National as the Greens are to Labour

  8. Scribe 8
    16 April 2008 at 1:00 pm

    Naming names now, a_y_b? Interesting decision to accuse an MP. Good luck with that.

  9. Steve Pierson 9
    16 April 2008 at 1:23 pm

    I’ve heard it was English

  10. Scribe 10
    16 April 2008 at 1:29 pm

    oob,

    Maybe as suggested by a commentator on PA English et al should split of and form “the country party’ To be to National as the Greens are to Labour.

    Maybe Clayton Cosgrove and Damien O’Connor and Harry Duynhoven and T.P. Field (oh, he left) and Ross Robertson and any others with a backbone could form their own off-shoot as well: “Labour’s conscience.”

  11. all_your_base 11
    16 April 2008 at 3:41 pm

    Scribe – see the question mark?

  12. Scribe 12
    16 April 2008 at 3:45 pm

    a_y_b,

    Yes

  13. Draco TB 13
    17 April 2008 at 9:04 am

    Well, now that we know the emails weren’t stolen and are, as a matter of fact, legitimate the story that should be getting plastered across the media is that National has proven to be absolutely corrupt. That’s what these emails prove. Nicky Hager just did his job as a research journalist and wrote about it.

    The story was a masterpiece in misdirection – they knew that by keeping on message and whining about how the emails were stolen, media would ignore Hager’s revelations and focus on the sexier and far less disturbing story of the mysterious email hacker. It worked a treat.

    The fact that they said the emails were stolen therefore discredit trying to NH rather than saying that they didn’t exist in the first place should have told everyone that what NH wrote was correct.

    As for the factions in National – there’s too many of them and they’re all at each others throat. They really should split into different parties. They won’t because they seem to still be in the FPP mindset and are trying to get a full majority (50% 1) to govern with.

  14. Draco TB 14
    17 April 2008 at 9:44 am

    Email finding helps no one – Brash
    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10504590

    Still trying to misdirect from the actual story I see – with the help of the NZ Herald of course.

    PS The bracket above should read (50% plus 1). The board eats plus signs.

Links to post