Nearly 60 witnesses are likely to be called to testify in suspended former Conservative Senator Mike Duffy’s trial on fraud, breach of trust and bribery over impugned housing allowances and travel expenses.
The witness lists defence lawyer Donald Bayne and prosecutor Mark Holmes have drawn up include Senate administration officials, at least one of whom was directly involved in processing Sen. Duffy’s expense claims up to 2012 when the Senate first began internal inquiries into his Senate finances, top former assistants in Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) office, including former PMO chief of staff Nigel Wright, and Sen. Duffy himself as well as his wife, Heather Duffy.