KEY POINTS:
Suspended Foreign Minister Winston Peters will be fighting for his political life at Parliament's privileges committee this morning as he seeks to convince MPs he did not solicit a $100,000 donation from billionaire Owen Glenn.
But Mr Glenn will appear in person next week at the committee with contradictory testimony, the Herald understands.
Mr Peters' lawyer, Brian Henry, has testified he solicited the donation, and the first the politician knew of it was on July 18 this year.
It will be the second appearance for Mr Peters, the New Zealand First leader, and he is expected to address issues in a letter Mr Glenn sent to the committee last week and a second letter the expatriate has sent.
In the first letter, Mr Glenn said Mr Peters personally sought the donation in 2005 - though he did not say when or describe the circumstance - and then personally thanked him for it at the Karaka horse sales in South Auckland, probably in 2006.
Mr Glenn has sent a second letter to the committee which probably contains testimony of when and how he believes the donation was solicited.
Mr Peters is expected to produce evidence of his travel - possibly involving a trip to Pusan in Korea in 2005 - that he believes will negate some of Mr Glenn's assertions of what took place.
The $100,000 donation went towards the legal fees of Mr Peters' unsuccessful electoral petition against National's Bob Clarkson, who won the Tauranga seat from him.
The decision on the petition was released on December 15, 2005.
The payment into Mr Henry's account was made on December 22.
The task of the privileges committee is limited to deciding whether Mr Peters should have declared the donation in the register of MPs' pecuniary interests.
But the importance of its work has been elevated well beyond that because central to its finding is whether Mr Peters' account of what happened is credible. And the stakes are even higher with a general election having to be called by November 15.
Much of the evidence is conflicting and Prime Minister Helen Clark believes there could be "an innocent explanation" for it.
Mr Peters has gone to ground since he stood aside from his ministerial posts while the Serious Fraud Office investigates other donation issues related to NZ First.
He has cancelled appointments in order to concentrate on clearing his name, which is essential to his party's survival.
Mr Glenn has previously given to the Labour Party - $500,000 for the last election.
He has made no secret of the fact he would like to become New Zealand's honorary consul in Monaco, where he lives.
