Mäesalu was one of three known persons to discuss extra funding for the Office of the President and the proclamation of laws in the same conversation with the president's interior adviser Toomas Sildam.

Mäesalu told the parliamentary committee he had two such conversations with Sildam in June, while the president's adviser never tied the two topics together causally nor claimed that there could be problems with proclamation should extra funding be held back.

But he added that the fact the two topics surfaced in the same conversation might have led to misinterpretation or miscommunication.

Mäesalu told ERR in August that he found his conversations with Sildam to have been "inappropriate."

The Government Office head also told the committee that he informed PM Kaja Kallas of his conversation with Sildam and was told that whether to bring the matter of the presidential office's additional funding to the government was up to the finance minister.

President Alar Karis' internal affairs adviser Toomas Sildam allegedly suggested to high-ranking Finance Ministry officials mid-June that the president might proclaim laws faster if the Office of the President was allocated additional funding in the middle of the fiscal year. Minister of Finance Mart Võrklaev then held back the extra funding, suggesting it would not feel ethical to grant it in such a situation. Toomas Sildam has said he was joking during what was an informal conversation.

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