MR DE ROSSA told the High Court yesterday he had no idea who the author of the Moscow letter was and he had made it clear that he did not sign that letter.
Continuing his cross-examination, Mr Patrick MacEntee SC, for Independent Newspapers, asked Mr De Rossa if he knew who wrote the letter. Mr De Rossa said he had made it clear that, he did not know of the letter until it was published in The Irish Times in 1992.
Mr MacEntee asked if the letter as steeped in the language that was in correspondence seat to Moscow previously. Mr De Rossa agreed there was a similarity in language and ideas.
Counsel asked if it was the same source as the person who wrote the various letters they had already gone through. Mr De Rossa said he was not in a position to say that.
Mr MacEntee asked if when he read the letter in The Irish Times in late 1992, he had examined it for clues, for example, the typewriter used.
Mr De Rossa said he had resigned from the WP in February 1992 and had no wish to be involved in the letter controversy. He gave no further thought to it except in so far as journalists pursued him about it.
Mr MacEntee said: "Our case on our evidence will he that the signature on this letter is your signature hut we unreservedly accept you did not knowingly sign it." Counsel then asked if, when Mr De Rossa was in Moscow, he signed any documents. Mr De Rossa said he did not.
Asked was he quite confident that he had never dealt with routine correspondence in Moscow, Mr De Rossa said he was in transit and there was no reason why he should be dealing with it.
Mr MacEntee asked if Mr Sean Garland would have referred any phone messages or faxes or telexes. Mr De Rossa said he did not sign any documents while he was in Moscow.
When he came back he signed hundreds, if not thousands, of pieces of correspondence. In anticipation of going away for three weeks, he would have signed daily letters to constituencies and Government Departments.
He agreed he would have dropped in to the WP HQ. Counsel asked if Mr Garland would have asked him to sign documents he would have prepared or drafted. Mr De Rossa said no. His signature never appeared jointly.
Mr MacEntee said that meant that this was a very unusual document indeed. Mr De Rossa said, yes, extremely.
Counsel said he must have seen Mr Garland's signature many times. Mr De Rossa agreed hut he was not a graphologist or an expert on signatures. Mr MacEntee asked if it looked like the signature he knew. Mr De Rossa replied: "It does, yes."
Mr Justice Moriarty asked if he had ever left his secretary with any letters signed in blank. Mr De Rossa said he would never have done that.