Simon Bridges denies corruption allegations as Jami-Lee Ross is kicked out of the National Party.
Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom has issued a message of support for embattled MP Jami-Lee Ross after bombshell allegations against his National Party leader Simon Bridges yesterday.
Dotcom took to Twitter saying to Ross, "I would like to have a chat with you.
"You may need legal assistance and election supportand I'm happy to help. The morally bankrupt now have one goal: To discredit and destroy you.
"It's evident in the headlines from the National PR wing today calling you a 'jihadist'," Dotcom tweeted.
Dotcom was famously arrested, with three others, in New Zealand in 2012 on behalf of the FBI.
The FBI was carrying out a worldwide operation targeting his file-sharing business Megaupload, which at the time consumed 4 per cent of the globe's internet traffic.
I would like to have a chat with you @jamileeross. You may need legal assistance and election support and I’m happy to help. The morally bankrupt now have one goal: To discredit & destroy you. It’s evident in the headlines from the National PR wing today calling you a ‘jihadist’.
Dotcom's tweet came after a whirlwind day at Parliament.
Ross' political career with the National Party ended in spectacular fashion yesterday when he came out fighting, waiting until his caucus colleagues were meeting behind closed doors to consider his fate before calling a press conference at Parliament with bombshell accusations against Bridges.
Bridges then emerged, flanked by his senior MPs, to inform the media that Ross' former colleagues had unanimously moved to expel him from caucus.
In an explosive press conference, Ross quit the party and called Bridges "corrupt", saying he planned to lay a police complaint over the handling of donations.
Ross claimed Bridges asked him to collect a $100,000 donation from businessman Yikun Zhang in May which was then split into smaller amounts to hide it.
He alleged MP Todd McClay and National Party general manager Greg Hamilton also knew about the donation.
Speaking after Ross' press conference, Bridges said National had kicked "lone wolf" Ross out of the party for his "appalling behaviour".
Bridges said Ross was "lying, leaking" and "lashing out" and he welcomed a police investigation into his claims about donations.
"They are entirely false and I invite Jami-Lee Ross to take them to police. It has zero chance of success, because it is wrong."
In 2014, former Auckland mayor John Banks was convicted of filing a false electoral return.
Banks was later acquitted and the conviction was overturned.
