"There are certainly no instructions from me in any sense to be pursuing the ALP. I don't know the ins and outs of meetings that Dastyari and McArdle may have had and it's inappropriate for me to comment on what is someone else's legal issue."

Craig Thomson, Sydney, 25 July, 2013 as quoted in The Australian newspaper here.

Inappropriate for you to comment on someone else's legal issue?   How could it not involve you centrally Mr Thomson?   Are you Mr McArdle's client?   Did you instruct Mr McArdle?   Do you have a fee agreement with Mr McArdle?   If you haven't instructed Mr McArdle to pursue the ALP for payment, on what basis would your lawyer be filing a Statement of Claim in the NSW Courts seeking an order against the Labor Party for $36,000 in fees Mr McArdle says relate to legal work he has done for you.   Do you accept that the fees are yours for you to pay alone?   Did the Labor Party instruct Mr McArdle?

The Labor Party has paid about  $360,000 in legal expenses incurred in various of Mr Thomson's legal troubles.

In 2011 The Labor Party paid $150,000 to bail-out Mr Thomson after he withdrew his defamation case against Fairfax media.

This affidavit of Mr Thomson's lawyer  Chris McArdle shows that during the period of the Fair Work Australia investigation (the one that found that Mr Thomson had misused HSU money), Mr Thomson was represented by Holding Redlich lawyers and that the Labor Party paid those legal fees.

On 29 April, 2012 Mr Thomson's membership of the Labor Party was suspended (it's worth looking at the ABC  story for the video of Ms Gillard's speech about the importance of the Parliament upholding the highest standards of probity and ethics - involving the 'invisible line' that had been crossed.

On 16 May 2013 Mr Thomson decided that he would resign from the Labor Party.  

The next day, news reports suggested that Mr Thomson was going to be expelled from the Party after a disciplinary hearing.

As it stands, Mr Thomson has had about $410,000 in legal fees and other legal costs that have been generated in legal matters involving him paid for by other people.   $360,000 by the Labor Party, and $50,000 by his recent Craig Thomson Legal Defence Fund.

It's interesting that Mr Thomson has told reporters more about his recent Craig Thomson Legal Defence Fund than he's told the Members Interest Register.   On his website under an undated heading Update he tells us of a balance of $17,500.   Yesterday he told AAP this 

But he told AAP two supporters, Mark Worthington and Rodney Allan, had so far raised close to $50,000 to cover his own legal bills.

And these updates on Mr Thomson's Register of Members' Interests relate firstly to the ending of the Labor Party's payment of his bills at the same time as he was suspended from the Labor Party (makes sense).   There is no further advice to his interest in anyone paying his legal bills until the second letter of advice (below) updated his interest register after the  Craig Thomson Legal Defence Fund's payment of some of his  bills.   Surely not the same ones that Mr McArdle reckons the Labor Party is responsible for?

The above relates to the ALP and Thomson says it's only until May 2012.

This more recent post relates to the Craig Thomson Legal Defence Fund.

Now Thomson's lawyer states that he represents Mr Thomson, but he is turning to the Labor Party for payment of Mr Thomson's fees.   Riddles within enigmas within conumdrums, as elusive as that bloke with the credit cards and the drivers licence and the cloned mobile phone who had fun on the HSU plastic.