OTTAWA — Was Mike Duffy railroaded by a group of Stephen Harper's aides into telling the public he would repay his Senate expenses, or was Duffy the one shaking down the PMO?
This is the key question being scrutinized in the courtroom this week, as Harper's former chief of staff Nigel Wright continues his testimony.
Three of the 31 charges Duffy faces go to Wright's secret repayment of Duffy's $90,000 in contested living and travel expenses in March 2013.
Duffy's lawyer Donald Bayne is making the case through cross-examination of Wright that the senator was forced into a game plan that would see him tell the media he would repay his expenses, while someone else would cover the bill.
Wright conceded that Harper's office wanted Duffy to stop defending his expenses in public or within an independent audit because it had become a political embarrassment.
