A selection of quotes from Sen. Mike Duffy’s trail on Tuesday

OTTAWA – A selection of quotes from Sen. Mike Duffy’s testimony at his trial on Tuesday;

“I was pleading with them to show some kind of decency, all of these born-again Christians were throwing me to the lions.” Duffy on what he says was pressure from former prime minister Stephen Harper’s officials to repay questioned expenses.

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“Why would I put a stain on my name, on my reputation, my wife and my kids and my grandchildren, oh, that your grandfather is a cheat? I’m not a cheat, I’m not a thief, and I don’t break the rules.” Duffy says he followed the rules on expenses.

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“I knew they were building a scaffold and everywhere I looked I saw people who were betraying me, leaking stuff to the media that wasn’t true.” Duffy on the political pressure he felt.

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“In my mind that night, I thought, this is it, I’m cooked, I’m cooked.” Duffy says he felt trapped by the pressure.

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“That was it. That was it. I had fought and I had fought and I had fought, and I tried every kind of resistance, but when they pulled that knife out and held it over my head, I felt I had no other choice.” Duffy says he was threatened with the loss of his Senate seat.

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“I was in a very emotional state. I felt like one of these prisoners of war, in a North Korean prison camp, where they put you in front of a camera and you repeat robotically the lines.” Duffy on parroting scripted lines from the prime minister’s office on his expenses.

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“I didn’t accept anything for me, and anything I did in this political manoeuvre was for the prime minister’s benefit, not for mine.” Duffy on whether he derived a personal benefit from the $90,000 repayment of his expenses.