OTTAWA -- The federal Liberals are accusing the Harper government of misleading Canadians about a paper trail in the Senate expense claim scandal.

The Conservatives insist that no legal documents exist that spell out the terms of a $90,000 gift to Sen. Mike Duffy from the prime minister's former chief of staff.

But Liberal MP Ralph Goodale says the government has not denied that at least one email exists that could contain details of the transaction.

Nigel Wright resigned as chief of staff after acknowledging that he gave the embattled senator the money so he could repay questionable expense claims.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper says he only learned of the payment from media reports and he wouldn't have approved it had he known beforehand.

Once Duffy received the money, he stopped co-operating with an external audit of his expense claims.

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