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taxpayer money. If the case fell over, then it meant the Megaupload team had at least one place they could start to sue for compensation. It was a process which should have taken place at the outset, instead of leaving officials and ministerial offices clambering to catch up with the law.

Documents released through the Official Information Act show the prospect of signing away any legal rights caused consternation in government departments. It again went to the top — an interesting development given statements from many politicians in the wake of the raid that they had been briefed on Dotcom and the US case only on the day prior. Now, officials were trooping into the offices of Foreign Affairs minister Murray McCully, Finance Minister Bill English, Minister of Police Anne Tolley and Minister of Justice Judith Collins, whose job it would be to eventually sign off any extradition order.

The focus from some of the highest offices in the land gave pause for thought and considerations which didn’t appear to have taken place earlier. The Ministry of Justice staff who handled the case had to consider rejecting the “undertaking of liability”, meaning the restraining order would lapse and Dotcom would get back control of his New Zealand-based assets. Few documents were released but among them was a 5 March email from the Crown Law Office’s Laracy. The email showed the extent to which Crown Law went in seeking advice to explore the case for the undertaking. She wrote: “Penny Ridings [an international legal adviser from Mfat] will be there to enunciate the implications in terms of the diplomatic relationship with the US were NZ for this reason not able to pursue [the restraining order].”

Whatever the diplomatic reasons would be, they were withheld. The government obscured much of what was contained in hundreds of documents, with an often cited reason for withholding the details being that release “would likely prejudice the international relations of the government of New Zealand”.

Among the details withheld was a series of documents and emails about a meeting between Justice Minister Collins and the United States ambassador David Huebner. The documents’ titles in part were released — one was a briefing about extradition. The others had no title but must have related to the undertaking, having been released in response to an Official Information Act request seeking material on the issue. Collins later said the meeting went ahead but she never spoke with Huebner about the case. It was later said the meeting opened with a light comment about how they wouldn’t be speaking about the Dotcom case before proceeding carefully around the elephant in the room — and the large German man in Coatesville.

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