Brian Henry said last night he asked the Monaco-based businessman for help when another donor fell through.
"He had said he would make the donation and he didn't and we were left looking to see if we could find someone else.
"We made it well known around friendly political circles - or I did - that I was looking for a donor."
The intrigue over Mr Glenn's $100,000 donation is growing.
It has been suggested that Mr Peters breached Parliament's rules by not declaring any donation towards his legal bills as a gift in the MPs' register of pecuniary interest.
Mr Peters, who is Foreign Minister as well as NZ First's leader, dropped a bombshell on Friday, saying Mr Henry had told him that day that Mr Glenn had donated to the cost of his 2005 electoral petition against National MP Bob Clarkson.
His admission followed a story on July 12 showing Mr Glenn had said in emails that he had donated money to New Zealand First.
Mr Peters denied the story all last week and continued to deny it on Friday, saying the $100,000 was not given to him or his party. Last night, Mr Henry was fielding calls about the donation at the request of Mr Peters, who refused to answer any questions about it yesterday at his party's convention in Auckland.
Mr Peters sweated profusely during his speech, which pointedly avoided mentioning the donation from Mr Glenn.
He left soon afterwards to join his family, mourning the death of his elderly mother on Friday.
He is due to leave NZ tonight for a meeting of the Asean Regional Forum in Singapore.
Mr Henry said he could not recall who had advised him to contact Mr Glenn when the original funder of the legal action fell through, but it was not Mr Peters.
Nor was it Mike Williams, the president of the Labour Party which has also received donations from Mr Glenn.
"I can't off the top of my head remember who it was who told me to call him."
Mr Henry said that Mr Glenn probably had not distinguished between Mr Peters' legal expenses and the New Zealand First party.
"But he was told he was contributing towards the legal expenses of the Tauranga electoral petition - that's where the money would be applied, to that bill."
Mr Henry also clarified there was no special account for Mr Peters' legal bills: "The position is that the money is used to pay an existing bill, full-stop."
Mr Henry said $200,000 in total donations had been received for Mr Peters' legal bills, including the $100,000 from Mr Glenn.
Mr Henry would not say why he had not told Mr Peters about the donation in February, when Mr Peters had publicly denied Mr Glenn had made a donation and said he had done an exhaustive check.
Asked about pecuniary gain, Mr Peters told NZPA he did not believe he had benefited personally.
National deputy leader Bill English said last night he was not sure the party's strategy committee would even be discussing the issue when it met today.
