KEY POINTS:
Outgoing National leader Don Brash is mounting a firm rejection of accusations contained in The Hollow Men and has repeated that he had no knowledge of a "confidential" email sent by the Exclusive Brethren.
Dr Brash, who is at the centre of several damaging chapters in Nicky Hager's
new book, said the author has made "substantial factual errors".
"I think there would have been a vastly better book, even if somewhat less exciting, if the author had checked some of the things he claims are facts with the people involved," Dr Brash said yesterday.
He was particularly quick to rebut Hager's claim that he and his probable successor John Key both knew about the Exclusive Brethren's plan to conduct a campaign in their favour well before last year's election.
Hager's book contains a letter emailed to Dr Brash and Mr Key by members of the Exclusive Brethren in late May last year, outlining their plans.
The date is earlier than Dr Brash has previously admitted talking to the religious sect about their pamphlets.
Mr Key has said he did not open the email and Dr Brash said yesterday that he did not personally see the email.
"I can only assume that, if such an email was sent, it was sent to one of the email addresses that I don't myself monitor," he said.
Dr Brash said he has four email addresses, only one of which comes directly to him.
As for the email being forwarded on to National's campaign manager Steven Joyce, as Hager claims, Dr Brash said somebody else could have done that.
Dr Brash also said he never received a mysterious package from the Exclusive Brethren referred to in Hager's book and added that a plan put forward by the wealthy Talley family to pay for new advisers for him did not go ahead.
Dr Brash appears in The Hollow Men to know far more about the National Party's donors than he let on.
Yesterday he admitted he knew some "potential donors", because they were his personal friends and had told him they were interested in contributing - such as Alan Gibbs.
Dr Brash is highlighted in the book as having said he didn't have the "faintest idea" where National's money came from.
Yesterday he qualified that by saying, "I didn't have an idea in the sense that I didn't know how much Alan Gibbs gives, I didn't know how much Douglas Myers gave, I didn't have any idea whether David Richwite did or not".
High-profile corporate leader Rod Deane has also firmly denied Hager's claim that he was a big donor to the National Party.
Dr Deane contacted the Herald to say he had never attended a political fundraiser, never been a member of a political party, and had "never given a cent to any political party".
"That has been a long-standing principle going back to when I was in the public sector," he said.