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massively. By the time Wormald was talking to the spies about Dotcom, it was able to intercept phone calls, emails, social media and almost any other type of electronic communication. In effect, he wasn’t just asking the GCSB to help — he was asking the Five Eyes to help.

Suddenly, for the New Zealand Police, the world had no secrets.

“I MADE NO notes of this conversation,” Wormald said in his sworn affidavit of the 3-5 minute meeting which followed the Operation Debut briefing.

The GCSB staff talked broadly about what they might be able to achieve. Wormald spelled out what he hoped to find — details of travel plans and likely locations of the targets, along with timing. He also wanted to know any information which might raise the risk level for those involved in the operation.

There was also a conversation about who could be intercepted. The GCSB representatives laid out the ground rules, saying “New Zealand citizens and residents” could not be intercepted. The targets, all agreed, were not New Zealand citizens although Wormald said he did not know “with any certainty” what type of residency they held. Wormald said later that one of the spies “explained different types of residency existed and this affected what they could do regarding people living in New Zealand”. This was odd, considering it was contrary to what is set out in the GCSB’s own legislation. The law defines a permanent resident as someone holding any sort of resident visa — a statutory protection which should have applied to Dotcom and van der Kolk. There was no “type of residency” that permitted spying. Wormald offered to reach out to Immigration NZ for clarification of the targets’ immigration status but the group decided not to.

The spies then offered their own justification for spying. They were obliged by law to “address risks to New Zealand” and “the fact there appeared to be serious offending being orchestrated in New Zealand” was relevant.

The meeting ended with a promise from Wormald that documentation to support the request would be provided.

His notebook records a reminder — presumably from the first part of the meeting — which could also have been a factor in securing GCSB assistance. It read: “Provisional arrest requests received in draft. NZ Pol(ice) need to seek a warrant from (district court) judge.”

The reference is important because it was a different statement from one made in his formal letter of request to the GCSB, a few days later,

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