Article content

OTTAWA — Two and a half years after Sen. Patrick Brazeau was charged with fraud and breach of trust related to living expenses billed to the Senate, prosecutors have abandoned their case against him, Postmedia News has learned.

Assistant Crown attorneys assigned to the case are expected to officially abandon the case Wednesday morning before Ontario Superior Court Justice Robert Maranger in Ottawa.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Senator Patrick Brazeau’s fraud, breach of trust charges to be dropped after conviction deemed unlikely Back to video

Prosecutors have folded their case after conceding they didn’t have a reasonable prospect of conviction after reviewing the RCMP case against the 41-year-old senator.

The fraud and breach of trust charges stemmed from disputed Senate housing expense claims for his primary residence in Maniwaki, Que.

The legal victory for Brazeau follows the acquittal of Sen. Mike Duffy, who was acquitted on 31 counts of fraud, breach of trust and bribery in April.

While Brazeau was facing charges similar to Duffy’s, he was facing only two — fraud and breach of trust — stemming from a single alleged crime. The breach of trust charge was laid by the Mounties because he was in public office at the time.