Mike Duffy’s Trial Reveals The Real Deceit Came From Harper’s Office : Huffington Post
Mike Duffy’s Trial Reveals The Real Deceit Came From Harper’s Office
Huffington Post – Althia Raj
Mike Duffy won.
Two and a half years after warning Canadians he “violated no laws” and “followed the rules,” the senator from Prince Edward Island was vindicated Thursday when an Ontario court judge acquitted him of all 31 charges laid against him.
What’s more, Justice Charles Vaillancourt sided with Duffy. It was he, the Old Duff, not the Prime Minister’s Office, the judge said, who had been the victim of a “mindboggling and shocking” series of events.
Duffy’s “free will” had been “overwhelmed” and he had “capitulated” as a result of the PMO’s — Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s office, that is, — “threatening efforts,” the judge said.
The Crown “stated that Senator Duffy’s actions were driven by deceit, manipulations and carried out in a clandestine manner representing a serious and marked standard expected of a person in Senator Duffy’s position of trust,” Vaillancourt said.
“Harper’s office had basically forced someone who they believe had done nothing wrong to publicly admit the opposite.”
“I find that if one were to substitute the PMO, Nigel Wright and others for Senator Duffy in the aforementioned sentence that you would have a more accurate statement.”
Harper’s office had basically forced someone who they believe had done nothing wrong to publicly admit the opposite just to save the Conservative government from political embarrassment, the judge said.
Except, Vaillancourt delivered that admonishing judgment in a much more vivid and reprimanding fashion.
The emails presented in court revealed the “unbelievable lengths” that “Wright and his crew” had gone to deal with their “Duffy Problem,” he said.
“The precision and planning of the exercise would make any military commander proud,” Vaillancourt said.
“Could Hollywood match such creativity?” he later asked.
The PMO had first hoped Duffy would stay quiet and the problem of his living expenses would go away. When the “stay quiet and hope things disappear strategy” didn’t work, the judge said, it switched gears towards “the mistake and repay strategy.” Except Duffy didn’t want to be a part of it. He “was resisting and kicking and screaming every step of the way.”
Vaillancourt repeated that Duffy was “kicking and screaming” twice, re-emphasizing the senator’s reluctance to go through with this plan.
Duffy always maintained he didn’t owe any money and his expenses were proper. He wanted auditors at Deloitte to hear his side of the story. “He begged not to have to go through with the plan,” the judge said.