Jamie Bryson denies being 'coached' for NAMA appearance

Speaking to UTV correspondent Sharon O'Neill, Loyalist blogger Jamie Bryson denied suggestions he was "coached" ahead of an appearance before Stormont's Finance Committee.

"I don’t accept that I was coached at all," he said.

Mr Bryson was appearing as a witness in the committee's inquiry into the operation of the National Asset Management Agency, in particular the purchase of a property portfolio by US investment firm Cerberus.

He used the occasion to allege that former First Minister Peter Robinson was to benefit from the deal.

Asked whether he had reached a deal with Sinn Féin before his committee appearance he said, “At the end of the day, my objective was to get into the Finance Committee and to get out the public interest information which I had.

“If I had to make a compromise to get into that position and to enable myself to do that then I was more than willing to do that, but I certainly didn’t give anything away."

Mr Bryson insisted that nobody in Sinn Féin provided him with information on NAMA.

“If somebody suggested to me that the only way to get particular pieces of information out was to re-word it in a certain way so as Sinn Féin would not jump in and interrupt me, well then of course I would have been a fool not to accept that," he said.

Asked whether he had followed advice given to him in private Twitter correspondences with Sinn Féin member Thomas O'Hara, Mr Bryson said: "Other people may take the view that Sinn Féin were manipulated into greasing the pole for me to come into the Ccommittee.

“I think it’s really a question of who was playing who?"