OTTAWA — Senior leaders at Global Affairs Canada were not told that a $9-million condo the department purchased as a new residence for Canada’s consul general in New York was located in a famously posh Manhattan district known as Billionaires’ Row, an internal email shows.

Emails obtained by the National Post through federal access-to-information legislation provide a look into how officials handled questions over the controversial purchase, which the Conservatives have condemned as wasteful and have suggested was arranged by the Liberals as a special perk for former political reporter Tom Clark, now the consul general.