Gerald Butts denied improperly pressuring the former attorney general over a criminal case.
By Amanda Coletta March 6 at 4:13 PM TORONTO — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s former principal secretary took responsibility on Wednesday for a “breakdown in the trust” between the prime minister and his former attorney general, whose explosive claims last week over a criminal inquiry into a Quebec-based construction firm touched off a political firestorm.
“I am firmly convinced that nothing happened here beyond the normal operations of government,” he said.Echoing a claim made multiple times by Trudeau in recent weeks, Butts said that any discussions between Wilson-Raybould and officials from the prime minister’s office on SNC-Lavalin were motivated by a concern that a criminal conviction would put 9,000 jobs at risk, thanks to a decade-long ban that the company would face on bidding on government contracts.
The SNC-Lavalin scandal is the most serious crisis Trudeau has faced as prime minister, and it has already cost him two cabinet ministers, who resigned citing a loss of confidence in him, and Butts, his most trusted confidant. In one such meeting, on Dec. 5 of last year, Wilson-Raybould testified, she told Butts that she “needed everybody to stop talking to me about SNC, as I had made up my mind, and the engagements were inappropriate.”
The two first met as students on the campus of McGill University, and they have remained close friends, even serving as groomsmen in each other’s weddings.
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