Here is the full text of the email released by the Prime Minister today and which led to the resignation of Judith Collins as Justice Minister. It dates from 2011.
From Cam Slater
To mark {redacted] Carrick
Ok guys here is an update on the state of play on Adam Feeley.
Today is the 4th straight day of headlines and additional revelations about Adam Feeley I am maintaining daily communications with Jared Savage at the Herald and he is passing information directly to me that the Herald can't run and so are feeding me to run on the blog. in the meantime I also have additional information flowing in via my tipline. That information will be drip fed into the media or via my blog.
Herald articles Fran O'Sullivan: More than a storm in a champagne flute Editorial: SFOs bubbly an error of judgment SFO bubby celebrations vindictive: Petricevic Ex-SFO chief decries champagne incident
Cathy can outline her contact with Fran O'Sullivan separately. Basically though the Herald and other media are now picking up our lines that this situation is like "Caesar's Wife" where the SFO must be beyond reproach. If he nicked a bottle of wine what else has he nicked or hidden from receivers and liquidators?
So far the Herald has been running NBR to publish on Friday. Cathy will be chatting with Jock Anderson and I will cover Matt Nippert.
Our (Cathy's) nickname for Feeley (Five Fingers Feeley) has stuck. journalists ringing me actually use to describe Feeley now in phone conversations.
I also spoke at length with the Minister responsible today (Judith Collins). She is gunning for Feeley. Any information that we can provide her on his background is appreciated. I have outlined for her a coming blog post about the massive staff turnover and she has added that to the review of the State Services Commissioner. She is using the review of these events to go on a trawl looking for anything else. It is my opinion that Feeley's position is untenable.
I have also arranged with Matthew Hooton for iPredict (https://www.ipredict.co.nz) the prediction markets to have a new stock released so people can invest on the probability of Adam Feeley getting the sack before Christmas or leaving. These stocks [Email cuts off]
The email refers to former SFO chief executive Adam Feeley to the State Services Commission for celebrating the laying of charges against failed company Bridgecorp with a bottle of champagne recovered from Bridgecorp's former headquarters in 2010.
The commission found that this was ill-advised and poor judgement.
The email also mentions New Zealand Herald journalists who were running stories on the matter at the time.
The emails is sent to to multiple people including Carrick Graham, a public relations professional who is a central figure in Nicky Hager's book Dirty Politics.
Image 1 of 20: 'New National Party Social Affairs spokeswoman Judith Collins' photographed in Parliament. Photo / Getty Images
FROM THE EDITOR
Two big stories the NZ Herald broke regarding Adam Feeley in 2011 were independent of Whale Oil, and sourced from other contacts. It was good journalism, and in the public interest.
Reporters will have conversations with contacts from all sides of the political spectrum every day - it's our job to be fully aware of the source and their motivation, verify the information, and present it in a fair, accurate and balanced manner.
Whale Oil was one of a number of people Jared Savage spoke to as the issue rolled on, to find out what he knew. Some information would have been shared, but none of it, in our view, pivotal or relevant to our inquiries.
