A Martin connection?

Another morsel from Renaud's testimony, all but overlooked in most accounts:

Renaud also implicated Paul Martin's assistant at the time, Lucie Castelli. Renaud said Castelli not only sat on the finance committee of the Quebec wing of the Liberal party, but also asked Groupaction to take over sponsorship contracts from another firm because she wasn't satisfied with the work being done.

In fairness, Renaud also contradicts Jean Brault's testimony on one point: he testified "he never funnelled cash from Groupaction contracts to the Liberal Party of Canada." Well, okay, maybe once:

Renaud acknowledged he accepted cash from Brault for the Liberals on one occasion - a $63,000 payment to defray staffing costs when the party was in financial trouble. But Renaud says he had no other involvement in the scheme.

But that hardly counts, does it? Besides, he can't be expected to remember everything:

Renaud's testimony was at times shaky, failing to recall exact conversations or meetings withother people named in the scandal. He said his agendas and notes were recently destroyed in a flood at his home.

UPDATE: More on the Castelli question from La Presse, as the Bloc Quebecois raises the issue in the House. Rough translation:

The Bloc Québécois for its part tried to show that Paul Martin was au courant with the alleged embezzlements of the PLC. Bloc MP Michel Gauthier affirmed that Paul Martin's constituency assistant, Lucie Castelli, sat on the finance committee of the PLC with Alain Renaud, former employee of Groupaction, and Jacques Corriveau, well-known Liberal and close friend of Jean Chrétien, who obtained nearly $500,000 from Groupaction without doing any work. "How can the Prime Minister say to us that he did not know anything of what was going on with the sponsorships when his own riding assistant sat on the finance committee where that occurred?" asked Mr. Gauthier. Mr. Martin retorted that the work of Ms. Castelli was limited strictly to selling tickets for a fundraising dinner.

No proof that Martin knew anything, here. But the more numerous such contacts become -- if they do -- the more difficult it will be to believe his story. UPPERDATE: Here's the CTV clip from QP, interrupted by some banter between Mike Duffy and the host, Kate Somebodyorother.