Mike Duffy trial begins Tuesday in Ottawa
Did senator cheat on expenses, and did PMO pay him off to buy silence?
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The charges require the Crown to prove he intended to deceive, intended to gain personal benefit. His experienced defence lawyer, Don Bayne, will drill holes in those arguments by pointing to Senate rules as unclear and to a government desperate to avoid embarrassment — doubts that Bayne hopes will lead to an acquittal.
Judge Charles Vaillancourt will have to wade through a massive paper trail to parse arcane Senate rules, receipts and documents as he weighs Duffy’s explanations that his expenses were legitimate or merely filed in error.
That’s the eye-glazing stuff of any fraud trial. And this one is going to be huge: it’s scheduled to run 41 days, starting Tuesday.
Yet you can expect moments of high drama.
Top Conservative Senate, PMO and party officials and former chief of staff Nigel Wright will be called to testify about the inner workings of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s office and its efforts to manage a growing Senate expense scandal in the winter of 2013.
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More:
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/04/03/mike-duffy-trial-begins-tu...
Mike Duffy Senate expenses trial puts spotlight on his side of story
Conservative-appointed senator's trial could illuminate inner workings of PMO through testimony, emails
Apr 07, 2015
The trial of suspended Senator Mike Duffy is expected to include a rare opening statement by his lawyer, the first narrative to a defence that has so far revealed little about its approach.
The former broadcaster will be in an Ottawa court this morning to face 30 charges of fraud and breach of trust, and one count of bribery. The maximum penalty for fraud or breach of trust by a public official is five years in prison.
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Joseph Neuberger, a Toronto-based criminal lawyer, said Bayne has been careful about not trying the case in the media. He said that's generally what good lawyers do.
At the same time, Neuberger said it's clear Bayne and Duffy will want to deflect attention from the expense allegations by raising questions about the Prime Minister's Office.
"We don't really know what are the factual underpinnings of the attack that the defence is going to level at the Prime Minister's Office, but it's certainly intriguing," Neuberger said in an interview with CBC News.
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More:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/mike-duffy-senate-expenses-trial-puts-sp...
Line outside the Ottawa Courthouse this morning for the Duffy Trial:
Panoramic view outside Courthouse:
Key witness in Duffy trial expected to admit to acting as middleman for payments
One of the key witnesses at Mike Duffy’s trial is expected to testify this week that he was paid about $20,000 to act as a middleman and disburse money to the now-suspended senator’s personal trainer, makeup artist and others, CTV News has learned.
In previously released court documents, RCMP investigators have alleged that Duffy paid his friend Gerald Donohue $65,000 under a Senate-funded contract to carry out work that was “of little or no value.”
Donohue, a former TV executive who is not facing any charges, will take the stand this week as a Crown witness. He will be questioned about $65,000 worth of Senate contracts for consulting work that investigators allege he never performed. Of particular concern to the prosecutors is what Donohue knows about $25,000 that is still unaccounted for.
Early in the investigation, Donohue told the RCMP that he didn’t receive any money and admitted that he produced “no tangible work product for Duffy.”
But sources tell CTV’s Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fifethat Donohue’s story has now changed. When he takes the stand, he is expected to admit that he was paid about $20,000 to act as a middleman and facilitate payments to others.
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More:
http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/key-witness-in-duffy-trial-expected-to-ad...
Duffy arrives at the Courthouse!
Bayne says there will be emails produced by the defence that will show what happened "behind the political facade" on $90,000 cheque #Duffy
https://twitter.com/CTVMercedes/status/585528898823282688
Bayne just lifted up two four-inch thick binders he says are e-mail narrative of #Duffy - Wright cheque affair.
https://twitter.com/davidakin/status/585528878220898305
Crown Contradicts Harper's View About Senator's Eligibility
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/04/07/crown-contradicts-harper_n_70193...
Not good for #CPC. Bayne just told court "standard pre-budget consultation" is to dispatch senators to BC for yacht club lunches. #duffy
https://twitter.com/davidakin/status/585521309779628035
Duffy's lawyer says the trial will see "graphic evidence" of Prime Minister's knowledge of and request for Senator Duffy's travel.
https://twitter.com/CTVMercedes/status/585521586377195520
Bayne says it was typical for CPC to send senator #duffy to a BC yacht club for prebudget consultation. #cdnpoli
https://twitter.com/evansolomoncbc/status/585522063840047105
Duffy's lawyer: email evidence will show Wright's cheque not a bribe, but culmination of conspiratorial strategy of Wright, PMO & 3 senators
https://twitter.com/CTVMercedes/status/585529842210340865
E-mail from PMO describes #Duffy scandal as “our public agony” and “our public bleeding” Bayne tells judge.
https://twitter.com/davidakin/status/585529606494621698
Duffy trial bombshell: Bayne says Nigel Wright told Harper caucus member was being forced to repay money he probably didn't owe. #DuffyIP
https://twitter.com/LeslieMacKinnon/status/585532721339969539
Duffy's lawyer says suspended Senator will take the stand to testify at some point in trial. #cdnpoli #Duffy #SenCA
https://twitter.com/RobertFife/status/585537568357351424
f https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&ei=WUskVbbXA4uMyASe3oH4A...
All that news coverage, Debater - and you couldn't track down a photo of the best political stunt of the day: NDP staff outside the courthouse this morning handing out boxed Senate breakfasts of ice-cold camembert and broken crackers? I am told the Liberals in the crowd sniffed with disdain....
How has Power and Politics managed to make this thing so incredibly boring. I think Evan Soloman has has a few too many Red Bulls.
Harper is going to emerge as a hero for getting rid of the crud in the Senate.
"Every Tory in town is putting their back to the wall at this time. They're nervous." -@Jean_Lapierre on the #Duffy trial. #CJADLIVE
https://twitter.com/CJAD800/status/585558817905242112
Poor Liberals - Trudeau is such a weak leader that the Liberals are basing all their election hopes on Harper being implicated in this trial.
Unfortuantely for the Liberals it's just not going to happen, and Canadians could care less about the Senate anyways.
Too bad Canadian politics is in the gutter with this gotcha politics.
Sorry I can't resist -- when I see the word "Red Bull" I think of Liberal promises. ;-)
Try watching Power Play with Don Martin. It seems to be more balanced or neutral coverage of most political events.
Did you read about this giant conspiracy? It's absolutely shocking and will propel the Liberals into majority government.
Crown contradicts Harper: Duffy ‘probably ineligible’ to be senator for P.E.I.
http://www.nationalnewswatch.com/2015/04/07/crown-contradicts-harper-duf...
CTV analyst: At the end of Day One there is no smoking gun and the Crown is on solid ground with at least some of the charges.
Doesn't this sound like something CPC HQ would say?
Debater try and stick to the topic and leave your constant sleazy Liberal inuendo in the trash where it belongs.
Mike Duffy's expenses questioned by Senate from the start
Exhibits filed in court suggest Senate finance officials raised concerns starting with 1st expense report
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/mike-duffy-s-expenses-questioned-by-sena...
Crown says Mike Duffy billed Senate for funeral, dog show
Follow the trial of suspended Sen. Mike Duffy, who faces 31 charges
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/04/06/live-coverage-of-mike-duff...