OTTAWA – Mike Duffy is back in Ottawa before his fraud trial begins next week.
The suspended former Conservative senator’s 41-day criminal trial is scheduled to start on Tuesday at a downtown Ottawa courthouse.
Duffy answered the door at his Kanata, Ont. home on Thursday – the house at the heart of his charges for defrauding the Senate of living expenses – wearing khaki shorts and a polo shirt.
“Go away,” he told a reporter before shutting the door.
He’d previously been spending time on Prince Edward Island, the province he represented when appointed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in December 2008, and which he claimed as his “primary residence” according to Senate rules.
READ MORE: Dozens of current, former senators asked to account for expenses: report
Duffy faces 31 charges in total, most of which are fraud and breach of trust relating to his Senate living and expenses claims, including travel for personal trips and funerals, contracts he gave to a friend, and allegations he charged the Senate while campaigning for the Conservatives.
He’s also charged with bribery for accepting a $90,000 from Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s former chief of staff, Nigel Wright, who was investigated by the RCMP but never charged.
The trial is scheduled for April 7 to May 12, and again on June 1 to 19.
Watch: Mike Duffy’s lawyer says trial set for spring
Duffy has proclaimed his innocence and blamed the Prime Minister’s Office for orchestrating a “monstrous fraud” relating to the $90,000 pay back.
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