Thread by @lukeharding1968

In 1997 I wrote a book about Jonathan Aitken, the Conservative minister jailed for lying in a libel action against the Guardian. Alas, Aitken has been at it again - claiming he received no money from #Kazakhstan for a book on its dictator. He got £166,000 theguardian.com/news/2021/oct/…

The money was routed via a PR company that works for Kazakhstan's government. Its founder Patrick Robertson is a #Brexiteer ultra who worked in the 1990s as Aitken's press guy. World PR paid Aitken the cash from secret #offshore accounts and underwrote his US book tour

The #PandoraPapers includes Aitken's hotel bill for an event at the Library of Congress. Ironically enough, Aitken’s political career came to an end in 1996 after he lied about who had paid for his stay at Paris's Ritz hotel – not a Kazakh dictator back then but the Saudi royals

Since going to jail for #perjury Aitken has found God and become a clergyman. He has served as a prison chaplain and as a member of a #Conservative party task-force on prison reform and spoken at the House of Commons. We tried hard to contact him for comment - without success

Here's my original book on Aitken's downfall, The Liar, written with my @guardian colleagues @davidleighx and the late David Palister. It seems extraordinary that someone as talented as #Aitken - with literary and political gifts - should repeat history
amazon.co.uk/Liar-Fall-Jona…