Canada ex-attorney releases secret Trudeau recording in SNC-Lavalin affair

A political meddling scandal threatening Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s re-election bid was given fresh impetus on Friday with the release of messages and a secret recording supplied by his former attorney general.

Jody Wilson-Raybould says government officials tried to persuade her to shield SNC-Lavalin from prosecution in a corruption case.

She gave an audio recording and other materials to a Commons committee.

The files were released publicly on Friday and are likely to increase pressure on Trudeau.

He has struggled for weeks to contain the fallout from the controversy.

The controversy comes just months before a re-election bid that looks increasingly uncertain for Trudeau, whose progressive, golden boy image was previously been unblemished.

In the 43 pages of documents, Wilson-Raybould tries to link her demotion in January to her resistance to allegedly undue pressure to settle the SNC-Lavalin case – which Trudeau and his staff have denied.

And she hints about why, a month later, she resigned from the cabinet, saying she decided “I would immediately resign if the new attorney general decided to issue a directive in the SNC-Lavalin matter”.