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As the Mounties’ criminal probe marks its first anniversary Thursday, insiders say at least eight current and former top aides to Premier Doug Ford have been interviewed — in the presence of lawyers being paid for by the Progressive Conservative party, which has already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on legal fees and is bracing for a seven-figure tab.

Members of the RCMP “O” Division’s Sensitive and International Investigations unit, the elite Ottawa-based branch that looks into political crimes and corruption, have been dropping hints to interviewees about where the probe is headed.

The detectives, whose questions indicate they have already obtained numerous internal email and text messages, have suggested they may need to access banking records in Europe, meaning the investigation could last many months or even years.

According to the , the average length of time of a federal police investigation is 1.6 years.

That timing is significant because Ford is considering a spring election, one year ahead of the scheduled June 2026 vote. Any major developments in the Greenbelt scandal could derail that timetable.

So far, the RCMP’s focus has been on the premier’s inner sanctum — not the municipal affairs minister’s office that was initially blamed for the imbroglio.

Ford himself has not been interviewed, but he has emphasized his door is open to investigators.

“We have nothing to hide,” he said in August.

“Come in and do whatever you have to do … but I want full co-operation — they know that — because there’s nothing to hide there. Let’s get on with it.”

Sources, speaking confidentially in order to discuss internal deliberations, say the Mounties have not yet scheduled interviews with former municipal affairs minister Steve Clark or his then-chief of staff Ryan Amato.

Clark and Amato, who both left their posts in the wake of the debacle, have denied any wrongdoing and are eager to meet with the RCMP — possibly before Christmas. In June, the premier appointed Clark as government house leader.

Ford abandoned the Greenbelt land-swap scheme on Sept. 21, 2023, a month after separate reports by then-auditor general Bonnie Lysyk and integrity commissioner J. David Wake found developers connected to the Tories had been “favoured” when the premier allowed homes to be built on the environmentally sensitive land.

°Â²¹°ì±ð’²õÌý seems to be serving as something of a road map for the Mounties, according to those who have been interviewed at law firms and at an RCMP detachment in the Greater É«É«À² Area.

The Star is not identifying all of those who have met with the RCMP because they are not authorized to discuss what they are telling detectives.

Officially, the Mounties would only confirm their work is ongoing.

“The RCMP’s Sensitive and International Investigations team takes these allegations seriously. We would like to reassure the residents of Ontario that we are conducting a thorough investigation,” the force said in a statement.

So far, the police line of questioning seems to be about the organizational structure in the premier’s office — who reports to whom, what is the role of the bureaucracy in political decisions and who has the final say on green-lighting government initiatives.

Detectives also appear intrigued by a 2020 trip to Las Vegas that a top Ford aide, then-principal secretary Amin Massoudi, took with MPP Kaleed Rasheed, Greenbelt developer Shakir Rehmatullah and Jae Truesdell, at the time a private citizen who would later become the premier’s housing policy adviser.

Rasheed was forced to step down as Ford’s business minister and leave the PC caucus in September 2023, after making what he called “an honest mistake” when he gave the integrity commissioner wrong information about the date of the Vegas jaunt. 

Friends confide he has yet to meet with the RCMP, noting the affable Mississauga East-Cooksville MPP feels like “collateral damage” because he lost his job over that vacation date inconsistency despite having no role in the Greenbelt decision.

Truesdell, forced from his position in Ford’s office, was one of the first Tories to be interviewed by the Mounties. He has maintained he did nothing wrong.

Rehmatullah , who attended the premier’s daughter’s wedding, owned stakes in two small parcels totalling about 23 acres that were removed from the Greenbelt near Markham and Whitchurch-Stouffville.

It is unclear whether the RCMP has yet met with Massoudi, now a successful lobbyist working in the private sector.

Long one of Ford’s closest advisers, the premier’s office said it cut “formal” ties with him last fall due to fallout from the Greenbelt saga.

When Massoudi left Queen’s Park after the 2022 election to launch his lobbying business, the premier said “since the early days at city hall, Amin has been by my side and has become one of my most-trusted advisers.”

“He’s been a steady hand in my office, first serving as deputy chief of staff and then principal secretary and chair of our successful re-election campaign, and has helped encourage many young people inside and outside government to get more involved in politics and public service,” Ford said at the time.