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Like it or not, we survived the unjustified bs! Aimer ça ou non, nous avons survécu la merdre non justifiée! pic.twitter.com/Pgqr03jkd0 — Patrick Brazeau (@senatorbrazeau) December 13, 2018

The “bs” over which the amigos prevailed, as Brazeau put it in a provocative caption, were allegations of improper spending that prompted the RCMP to investigate each of them.

Duffy, a former broadcaster nominated to the Senate by Stephen Harper, was alleged to have falsely claimed that he primarily lived in P.E.I. to qualify for the housing allowance despite owning a home in Ottawa for decades. Ontario Court Justice Charles Vaillancourt dismissed 27 charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust against Duffy and found him not guilty of the other four at the end of his trial in April 2016.

At the time, Duffy’s lawyer, Don Bayne, called the verdict “a resounding acquittal” and said the senator had been subjected for three years “to more public humiliation than probably any Canadian in history.”

Brazeau — who became the youngest senator in Canadian history when Harper nominated him to the post in 2008 — was also suspected of improperly availing himself of the housing allowance given to senators who live outside the Ottawa area by claiming his main residence was in Maniwaki, Que. Independent auditors determined that Brazeau hadn’t made any false residency claims.

Wallin, a longtime TV journalist and fellow Harper nominee, came under legal scrutiny for her travel expenses; investigators believed she’d billed the Senate for trips that weren’t connected to parliamentary business, including travel for her work on corporate boards. Wallin said her office might have erred in filing certain claims and repaid the Senate more than $150,000.