COMMENT:
Simon Bridges' voice was a few octaves lower than usual, he was subdued and he looked shocked as he talked to reporters within minutes of receiving news that police had referred the National Party donation complaint to the Serious Fraud Office.
Late last year he made a statement to the police about the allegation lobbed by the fireball MP Jami-Lee Ross over a $100,000 donation, earmarked for Labour Party attack ads, from a Chinese businessman.
The pair had dinner with the businessman in May, Ross claims, and the donation followed with an excited call from Bridges telling him it had to be split into donations smaller than $15,000 to avoid it being declared.
After he went feral, Ross released a series of texts between him and National's general secretary, Greg Hamilton, who's in charge of donations, showing the names put up as donors couldn't be found on the electoral roll, with the Nat official asking Ross if there was a particular individual who'd organised them.