One Nation’s James Ashby and Steve Dickson break their silence on Al Jazeera documentary

The two One Nation officials caught up in an explosive undercover investigation have broken their silence, blaming booze.

The two One Nation officials caught up in an undercover investigation say they had “got on the sauce” when they were recorded talking about soliciting millions of dollars in foreign donations from the American gun lobby.

Pauline Hanson’s chief of staff James Ashby and One Nation’s Queensland leader Steve Dickson now say it’s up to Ms Hanson whether they resign.

“I’ll wait to see what tomorrow brings,” Mr Ashby told The Bolt Report on Tuesday night.

Earlier today the pair had said Ms Hanson was “not feeling well” when asked where the One Nation leader was.

Mr Ashby has also called on Al Jazeera to release all the footage of their recorded conversations so they could be put into context.

“It will show that we were not selling Australia down the drain,” Mr Ashby told The Bolt Report. “There is no way we were out to change Australian gun laws.”

Al Jazeera’s Peter Charley reportedly told The Project that he would be happy to release everything but that One Nation may not like that very much.

He also hit back at accusations that Australian reporter Rodger Muller, who took the footage while working on behalf of Al Jazeera, was a paid spy and the agent of a Middle Eastern country.

“It’s laughable, Roger Muller is a red-blooded Aussie guy, he’s nothing like a spy,” Mr Charley said.

“The idea that spies have infiltrated Australia is ludicrous,” he said.

Both Mr Ashby and Mr Dickson fronted the media this afternoon to explain their conduct, which was revealed in the documentary How To Sell A Massacre.

RELATED: Undercover video exposes One Nation

Mr Muller posed as a grassroots gun advocate campaigner and set up meetings in September 2018 between the NRA and One Nation, which he covertly filmed.

The secret footage reveals Mr Ashby and Mr Dickson seeking political donations of up to $20 million and exploring ways to undermine Australia’s gun laws.

This afternoon Mr Dickson said he “never, ever, ever suspected” Mr Muller was anyone other than a genuine gun enthusiast. He went on to accuse Mr Muller of being a “spy” employed “by a Middle Eastern country” to interfere in Australian politics.

Mr Ashby said he was “very disappointed” that the pair’s comments had “been taken out of context”.

One Nation's Steve Dickson and James Ashby.

Mr Ashby said the main point of meeting with the NRA was to understand and learn from the techniques they had used to help the Trump campaign, such as robocalling, text messaging streams and live phone calls.

“These conversations with the NRA were to look at nothing more than their techniques. This was not about sourcing money from the NRA, this was about sourcing technology, an understanding of how they operate, but never was it about seeking $20 million from the NRA,” he said.

“The conversations that have been recorded where there is talk of $10 and $20 million dollars — I’ll be the first to admit, we’d arrived in America, we’d got on the sauce, we’d had a few drinks. And that’s where those discussions took place. Not with any potential donors. No one but Rodger Muller, Steve Dickson and myself.”

Mr Dickson said the pair had not broken any rules during the trip, and echoed Mr Ashby’s claim that their most incriminating comments were made under the influence of alcohol.

“Just to clarify a lot of this. We’ve landed in the United States, this trip has been organised by Rodger Muller — who again, I want to make this point very clearly, was employed by a Middle Eastern country, Al Jazeera, to come to Australia as a spy to infiltrate into Australian politics,” Mr Dickson said.

“There are many, many things that were videoed, and I believe a lot of those things were taken out of sequence.

“I’m going to apologise to the people of Australia for some of the things that Rodger Muller has taped me saying when we were having a few drinks at the bar at our hotel. I don’t talk like that publicly, we were three men talking together and we were having scotches for three or four hours. That is the truth of the matter.

“It wasn’t a secret meeting. I put it on Facebook. I showed the world we were there. Everybody in this country knew we were there.

“We have followed every rule and regulation.”

Shorter Ashby and Dickson: If you have an issue with Drunk One Nation, take it up with Drunk One Nation. Don’t come at Sober One Nation, because we weren’t there.

— Amy Remeikis (@AmyRemeikis) March 26, 2019

Ashby & Dickson blame alcohol for their gun money pitches....

I feel for these guys - this happens all the time. Go down to a pub in any Australian city & you'll find tipsy Aussies soliciting funds from foreigners to weaken Australia's gun laws. #auspol https://t.co/0vQp0qaYOB

— Craig Thomler (@craigthomler) March 26, 2019

Not 100% convinced these boys have sobered up yet.

— James Jeffrey (@James_Jeffrey) March 26, 2019

One Nation figures have been busted on camera lobbying for millions of dollars in political donations from America’s National Rifle Association, promising in return to try and weaken our country’s tough gun laws. #TheProjectTV pic.twitter.com/E59MdOMQT0

— The Project (@theprojecttv) March 26, 2019

One Nation party officials Steve Dickson (left) and James Ashby. Picture: AAP

During the press conference they took turns recounting their interactions with the journalist.

“The approach was made by Rodger Muller on his own. He approached us and said that he wanted to do an interview with Senator Hanson, and he also indicated that he wanted to help the party,” Mr Ashby told reporters.

“He gave an indication that he worked for an organisation called Gun Rights Australia, and he owned a dog food company in this country.

“The conversation led to a simple acknowledgment that I’m not a gun person. But we do have registered firearms people within our party, and Steve Dickson is that person. Being the expert in guns, I referred Rodger Muller over to Steve Dickson.”

Mr Dickson said he organised for Mr Muller to come to his house, but not before he “checked him out”.

“I made sure that he was what he said he was, and he’d been operating in Australia for two-and-a-half years at that time,” he said.

“He’d been to gun shows all over Australia, he’d been to the United States, he’d been to a whole lot of places. When he rang me he said, ‘What I want to make sure of is that we preserve the gun use in Australia as they are today.’”

Mr Dickson said Mr Muller conducted a “very vanilla” interview with him.

“He seemed to be a very reasonable guy, wore the Akubra hat. I never, ever suspected in my wildest dreams that that guy was employed by a Middle Eastern country, by Al Jazeera, as an Australian spy to interfere in Australian politics,” Mr Dickson said.

“He said, ‘What we really want to do is introduce semiautomatic weapons … and people to be able to carry handguns on their hip like they do in Texas.’ And I said, ‘Rodger, that’s never going to happen in Australia. We have got some of the strictest gun laws in the world, and they’re working pretty well.’”

After his meeting with Mr Dickson, Mr Muller then offered Ms Hanson an invite to the Congressional Sportsmen’s Dinner in the United States. She turned it down, but Mr Ashby and Mr Dickson went.

“It just so happened that Rodger had proposed meeting with the American NRA. And at that stage, he was telling us about the involvement the NRA had with Donald Trump’s campaign in 2016. He’d indicated that some of the technologies could be applied to One Nation in order to assist with our campaigning,” Mr Ashby said.

“When we arrived in America, other meetings were also organised. One was with the Koch Industries, which neither Steve nor I were even familiar with, but Rodger had indicated to us that they had been a significant contributor to Donald Trump’s campaign to the tune of $800 million, and they were interested in meeting with One Nation.”

James Ashby was filmed having meetings with the NRA.

Mr Dickson addressed a couple of his more controversial comments from the video footage.

“I said if we were fortunate enough to get into government and have the balance of power, we would have the government by the kahunas. I won’t use the word that they’ve said last night, it would be inappropriate of me to do so,” he said.

“But that means very clearly, and I don’t know if most men here understand that, it means you’ve got the balance of power.

“I’ve used the word kill on a number of occasions. And that means stop. Kill a project, kill a program, kill that deal. And that is stop. That’s what it means to me.

“I do use colourful language in my everyday life. I was born on the land, it’s the way I grew up.

“I apologise to the people of Australia for the use of those words.”

But between the apologies, he kept coming back to the same refrain, labelling Mr Muller a “spy” from a Middle Eastern country.

“To see that somebody had gone to the trouble from a Middle Eastern country, and Al Jazeera paying a spy to come to Australia — this is the stuff you see in James Bond magazines,” he said.

“I would never, ever suspect you would see this for real, in the real world.”

Mr Ashby called the sting “a deliberate set-up by the Qatari government”.

“He set these meetings up. This is skulduggery at its worst. This is the very first time Australia has witnessed political interference from a foreign government.”