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
