Nicky Hager Welcomes Police Findings on National Party Papers

News release 16 April 2008

Author Nicky Hager welcomed the findings of the Police investigation into the National Party e-mails and other documents that formed the basis of his book, The Hollow Men. Former National Party leader Don Brash had laid a complaint with the Police claiming the materials were stolen.

"The National Party has claimed repeatedly that someone hacked into their computers or stole the e-mails from former leader Don Brash's computer. The Police have concluded decisively that this did not occur." Today's Police press release says "the investigation has concluded that no unauthorised or unlawful breach took place".

"I hope that the National Party and commentators who repeated this baseless allegation will acknowledge their error and apologise to me."

"The Police had to address issues of 'theft' and 'stealing' because that is what Don Brash alleged. But in today's finding the Police are saying they have no idea how the leaks occurred and that they have found no evidence of any crime being committed."

"This was always going to be the outcome because the information came from legitimate leaks. 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."

ENDS

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