Kim Dotcom's evidence in his so-called Moment of Truth has come out with an email directly linking Prime Minister John Key to his extradition, but a spokesperson for the man meant to have written it says it’s a fake.
Dotcom's long-touted event at Auckland's Town Hall tonight was set to prove Mr Key knew about him before the raid on his Coatesville Mansion in January 2012.
The Prime Minster is adamant the first he heard about the Megaupload founder was on January 19 - the day before Dotcom and six others were arrested on a number of charges including copyright infringement.
The New Zealand Herald reports Dotcom's bombshell evidence is an email from October 27, 2010 and is alleged to be from Warner Brothers chairman and chief executive Kevin Tsujihara to Michael Ellis, a senior executive at the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) which lobbies for Hollywood studios.
The email reads: "We had a really good meeting with the Prime Minister. He's a fan and we're getting what we came for. Your groundwork in New Zealand is paying off. I see strong support for our anti-piracy effort.
"John Key told me in private that they are granting Dotcom residency despite pushback from officials about his criminal past. His AG will do everything in his power to assist us with our case. VIP treatment and then a one-way ticket to Virginia.
"This is a game changer. The DOJ is against the Hong Kong option. No confidence in the Chinese. Great job."
However, Warner Brothers says the email is fake.
Studio senior vice president for worldwide communications Paul McGuire said Mr Tsujihara didn't write or send the alleged email.
"He never had any such conversation with Prime Minister Key."
Mr Key today said all the meetings he had with Mr Tsujihara were in public and in the presence of other people.
He had only been made aware of the email shortly before talking to journalists this afternoon.
"I do not believe that [email] to be correct. I have no recollection of the conversation that's alluded to in the email," he said.
"In the end we'll dig down and get to the bottom of it, but we don't have any record of it."
However, later this afternoon, Mr Key issued a statement which said the alleged conversation with Mr Tsujihara never happened.
"The conversation allegedly reported on in the email did not take place," the statement says.
"People will see this for what it is."
Labour leader David Cunliffe says if the email is true, Mr Key needs to resign.
"If true, the email would prove that the Prime Minister has lied repeatedly and directly to the New Zealand people. It would be grounds for his resignation as Prime Minister," Mr Cunliffe said.
"National's whole campaign has been built around the credibility of one man and that credibility is now called into the most serious question."
He says if Mr Key wants to show the email is a fake, he needs to release meeting records and all documents with correspondence with Warner Brothers dating from 2010 which needs to be "immediate and full".
Dotcom's immigration file needs to also be released which Mr Cunliffe believes would show whether political influence was involved in his immigration clearance.
Meanwhile, American journalist Glenn Greenwald has claimed US National Security Agency (NSA) documents obtained by Edward Snowden show the GCSB has engaged in widespread domestic spying and he'll reveal more details about it at the meeting.
Mr Key strongly denies the assertion, saying he will resign if it is proven the GCSB was proven to have conducted mass surveillance.
He has also pledged to declassify documents proving he is right, but only once the documents Mr Greenwald has are released tonight.
"It's incumbent on them to release those documents, but when they do we'll counter it," Mr Key said on Sunday.
"We are absolutely rock solid in our position."
Today, Mr Key said if Mr Greenwald's mass surveillance claims were specifically about New Zealanders, he was wrong.
"We do collect information in foreign environments which we share with our partners, but not in New Zealand about New Zealanders."
He says the GCSB does not collect wholesale metadata or data of New Zealanders and did not use its Five Eyes partners to circumvent the law.
Mr Cunliffe said he hoped Mr Key was right.
"Questions based on whatever is revealed in the next few days are for the Prime Minister to answer. And New Zealanders will place a lot of weight on the answers that he gives."
Mr Key also called Mr Greenwald a "loser" and Dotcom's "little henchman" following his claims, and Mr Cunliffe thinks New Zealander's deserve better than resorting to name calling.
"He's developing a habit of this, and I think people will want to judge it on the evidence," Mr Cunliffe said.
Dotcom's event will also include, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and international human rights lawyer Robert Amsterdam.
3 News will be livestreaming Dotcom's announcement from 7pm tonight.
3 News
source: newshub archive
