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The Citizen’s first report on Duffy’s residency expense claims, in December 2012, mushroomed into the Senate expense scandal, triggering an audit, an RCMP investigation and, eventually, 31 criminal charges against him, including fraud, breach of trust and bribery.

Duffy goes on trial in Ottawa on April 7.

As one of Canada’s best-known television journalists, first with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation then CTV, Duffy likely took a pay cut when he went to the Red Chamber, where senators then earned $130,400 annually.

That income disappeared in 2013, however, when the Senate voted to suspend Duffy without pay.

For nearly two years, he has been legally represented by top Ottawa criminal lawyer Donald Bayne, who has likely accumulated hundreds of hours preparing the defence for trial slated to run for as long as eight weeks.

Bayne declined to comment on the financial terms of his retainer with Duffy but noted that cases like these cause considerable financial stress.

“Never mind the financial strain on a client, how about a client who was stripped without a hearing of his livelihood and has ongoing profound medical issues,” Bayne said, referring to the serious cardiac problems that Duffy, 68, has suffered.

“The last thing that is good for him is stress, cardiologists and heart surgeons will tell you that.”

Even if Duffy, were acquitted of all charges, there would little chance of him recouping his legal costs, Bayne said.

“There is no realistic opportunity in Ontario, given the state of the law, unless you can show an extreme form of bad faith of the Crown or prosecutorial authorities.”

In past land-registry documents, Duffy indicated his home address was in Kanata. But in the document associated with the new November mortgage, he provided his address in Prince Edward Island.