Mike Duffy pre-signed Senate travel expense claims, court hears

Suspended Senator Mike Duffy pre-signed a stackof blank travel claims before any details about trips had been provided on the documents, his former executive assistant testified on Monday.

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Under questioning by Crown prosecutor Mark Holmes,Melanie Mercer said that they had a "different process" in their office. She saidthat Duffy signed the forms before details had been entered, even though, she admitted, he was supposed to sign it afterto certifythe claims.

But Mercer saidexecutive assistants from other Senate offices had suggested to her to have Duffy sign a stack of blank travel claim forms, because "that's what they did in their office to help expedite the process for filing claims."

Duffy has pleaded not guilty to 31 charges of fraud,breach of trust and bribery related to expenses he claimed asa senatorandlater repaidwith money from the prime minister's former chief of staffNigelWright.The trial,which began April 7 in the Ontario court of justice in Ottawa, is inits28thday.

She said since Duffywas going to be travelling quite a bit, it made sense to have some pre-signed claims, and he was in agreement, Mercer testified.

"How did you feel about that?" Holmes asked.

"At the timeI didn't think anything of it. I thought it would be practical, that itwould be efficientin filing the paper work."

Mercer said she couldn'trecall just how many claim forms she'd have Duffy sign at once, but notedthat after he went through a package, she'd be "set for a while."

Mercer said there was nothing"malicious behind this" and that it was just an effort "to stay on top of things.

"I received the information from him, I would fill out the form, and everything coincided at the time the dates of travel, receipts,everythingmatched."

Mercertestifiedthat she would fill out the claims either based on information supplied by Duffy or detailsfrom his organizer.

Shesaid if there were any errors, one of her contacts atSenate finance would be able catch them and notify her. (Indeed, Holmes showed a series of travelclaims in which Mercer had made errors).

Mercer also testified thatshe never told the finance official that Duffy was pre-certifying thetravel claims.

"Did you think it was appropriate to do it this way?" Holmes asked.

'I didn'tfeel it was a major issue'

"I think because the other officewas doing it, I didn'tfeel it was a major issue," she said.

Court has already heard oftrips Duffy took that theCrown alleges were for eitherpersonal orpartisan reasons and should not have been expensed to the Senate.

Earlier, Mercer testified thatshe wasn't aware of theservices being provided to Duffyby a number of individuals who later received cheques for those services through a Duffy associate.

She said she didn't know what had been providedby George Radwanski, who received a $500 cheque for editorial work. She also had never heard of David McCabe, a cousin of Duffy's, who received a $500 cheque for media monitoring.

Although former Sun News host Ezra Levant's name was mentionedas someone who might be broughton for speechwriting, she saiddidn't know at the time that Levant had written speeches for Duffy. (Levant received $4,200 for two speeches.)

Nor had she heard of the nameMike Croskery, a personal fitness trainer, who received more than $10,000 for what Duffyclaimed wereconsulting services, butalso includedworkout sessions

All these individuals had received cheques from GeraldDonohue.The former Duffy associatehad been awarded a series of Senate research contracts with Duffy worth nearly $65,000contracts that Mercer herself had reviewed.

The RCMP has said Donohue received the money for "little or no apparent work." The Crown alleges that pool of money was used by Duffy to pay for a series of expenses. The Crown contends thatsome of those expenseswould not have been covered by the Senate.