Thursday, February 28, 2019

Trudeau's own Trumpian obstruction may do him in

There were two hearings yesterday that rocked their respective governments.  Cohen in the US, and an ex-Attorney General in Canada.




Trudeau was detonated today by his former Attorney General, Jody Wilson-Raybould, Canada's first Aboriginal A-G. She just testified in Parliament, in meticulous detail, how Trudeau and his staff tried to get her to drop criminal charges against a corrupt company that he liked.

She refused to bend the law for Trudeau's cronies. But they didn't stop. Trudeau; his chief of staff; his principal secretary; even the finance minister. They met her ten times, phoned her ten more. trying to get the charges dropped. She wouldn't. So Trudeau fired her as A-G.

The story leaked out earlier this month, but it was all anonymous sources. The former A-G herself didn't say a word, saying she was bound by attorney-client privilege and cabinet confidences. She was effectively gagged; so Trudeau was the only one talking.

Trudeau took advantage of her enforced silence to claim she supported him and everything was fine. After all, when he fired her as A-G, he appointed her to the minor post of veterans minister. When she heard him make that boast, she quit as veterans minister. He was shocked.

Then suddenly Gerald Butts, Trudeau's right hand man -- his best friend since college -- resigned, claiming he had done nothing wrong. Which is odd. It looked like a compromise -- Butts left, so Wilson-Raybould met with the cabinet and the caucus again.

Wilson-Raybould still didn't say anything publicly. She hired a retired Supreme Court judge as her lawyer, to advise her on what she could say. Under pressure, the Liberal dominated Parliamentary committee invited her to testify, and Trudeau grudgingly waived some privilege.

So today she testified. In great detail. Exactly who pressured her. Exactly how. Exactly when. She named names. Including the prime minister himself. Here's her statement: Transcript at the National Post

It's against the law to pressure the Attorney General to obstruct a criminal prosecution. Here's Canada's Criminal Code. Section 139(2) is obstruction -- it carries a 10-year prison term.




That's an amusing clip, and if she still wants the job, I wish her the best of luck.

Looks like we might share something new with Canada: a criminal at the head of government.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

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