Clive Palmer was urged not to endorse Jacqui Lambie as his party's Senate candidate in Tasmania by the most senior elected Palmer United Party official in Queensland before last year's election.
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Alex Douglas, a state MP who defected as PUP leader in Queensland in August and is now serving an as independent, has told Fairfax Media about a pre-election mission Mr Palmer sent him on to scrutinise Ms Lambie's credentials, then ignored his recommendations.
Dr Douglas' involvement in vetting the Tasmanian has thrown into further doubt Mr Palmer's claim that Senator Lambie, who quit PUP on Monday, had somehow "infiltrated" the party to cause trouble.
"I thought she was a very unsuitable person for a middle-of-the-road party," said Dr Douglas. "You have Tony Abbott who is from the hard right, but she is much further to the right than Tony Abbott."
"I think Sarah Palin is a moderate compared to Jacqui. I was very much against her and I told Clive that."
Dr Douglas spent time with Senator Lambie in Hobart, and said he reported back that she appeared to him to have a conflicted political philosophy.
He said he could not reconcile the two positions held by Senator Lambie. On the one hand she was a "full-on Australian nationalist", she said, and on the other, someone with a belief that Tasmanians should be given "special deals" at the expense of other Australians.
Senator Lambie has been a member of both the Labor and Liberal parties. Earlier in the year she told Fairfax that the Liberals were a "boys' club" and she had joined to "infiltrate" them to see what she could learn about politics.
Dr Douglas said Mr Palmer had dismissed his reservations because he believed he had found a "star" in Senator Lambie.
"He's a populist and he saw another populist in Jacqui," he said. "Populists will alter their politics to suit their situation."
On Tuesday, Mr Palmer told 2UE Radio that Senator Lambie had "pleaded" with him to preselect her. He claimed that she had been vetted but had not revealed everything about her history.
"It was a very difficult time, we'd only established the party for eight weeks. We did vet her but she lied to us," he said.
In a statement on Monday, Mr Palmer raised concerns that Senator Lambie may have been receiving disability payments from the Commonwealth at the same time as she was receiving a full-time salary from PUP before last year's election.
Senator Lambie has declined to return fire and said she wanted to concentrate on her job. She is expected to meet Prime Minister Tony Abbott to discuss Defence pay.
On Tuesday she will also meet Opposition Leader Bill Shorten.
