Many states in the US have something like nolo contendere, which I gather means the defendents admit they did it and they'll pay a fine, but they don't want a record of having pled guilty or of having been found guilty. This plea has cleared up a tonne of court time in the US, as I understand it.
The plea of nolo was very similar to what the Canadian ruling Liberal Party snuck into the budget. The fact that it was allegedly/apparently snuck into a budget bill is questionable, and possibly scurrilous; also it was apparently snuck in at that point to provide the this non-guilty option for SNC-Lavalin even though it was clearly ex post and should have been forward looking, not applying to past cases. I may be wrong, but that by itself is questionable, even if that plank of the budget had all kinds of language allowing the gubmnt to use nolo on cases that had not yet gone to trial. [nevertheless, I think "nolo" is an efficient addition to criminal law]
Okay, so why didn't the then-sitting Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould object then? A couple of possibilities:
- She didn't see it in the bill and her staff missed it. Not implausible; it was a budget, not an attorney general bill after all.
- She approves of nolo but thought it would be forward looking.
- She approves of nolo but figured she could still prosecute SNC, that it would be her choice. I expect this would be what she'd say, even if it's not the case.
- She went along cuz she was a good Liberal party member and wanted to keep her job as AG and figured she deal with SNC separately.
- She didn't even consider the conflict.
- Maybe she did object and we don't know.
Those and many more possibilities.
So what happened?
My guess is that JT thought it was all taken care of and that SNC would get off with a major hand-slapping but no criminal record, thus allowing them to bid on future gubmnt contracts (I gather the criminal conviction would bar this? not sure). But J W-R said "no".
As happens everywhere when people disagree, pressure was brought to bear. Nothing new here. You wanna know pressure? sit on a promotion and tenure committee; sit on a committee that decides to revoke someone's tenure; testify before city council that Uber should be permitted in town (the threats actually concerned me in a related situation many years ago); etc. Pressure in a political situation is common, normal, to be expected. Especially intense pressure. What on earth did she expect? I expect she didn't believe they'd fire her.
But then she didn't bow to the pressure. Why not???? I think this is an important question. Did JT apply inappropriate pressure? Did she really have a moral position that SNC did it and should accept the consequences? [after all SNC apparently has quite the reputation for allegedly bribing mideast oil shieks --- someone on FB posted that this goes even further --- that the Saudis in turn provide SNC lots of business so long as JT and the Liberals don't complete a pipeline from the west to the east, thus keeping the demand for Saudi oil high.]
Given her background as a prosecutor, did she just think the guilty should be convicted? If so, she wouldn't like nolo despite it's obvious efficiencies. But if that's the case, why hasn't she raised that as the issue.
And what really puzzles me: Why did JT try to cover it all up? Why didn't he go on record right away as saying that yes, the Liberals had lobbied strong and hard with J W-R but she wouldn't consider their positions and she had to be removed from the AG position?
As someone [who???] once said [loosely paraphrased], it's not that JT and the Libs did it - it's the coverup that got 'em in trouble.
Whatever, I consider J W-R in Canada and Cohen in the US to be shining testament for small gubmnt.
Note 1: I ran across the plea of "nolo" when I was a grad student in the US doing some research on a paper about anti-trust violations. Tonnes of defendants for local silliness pled "nolo" and I had to look it up.
Note 2: That was nearly 50 years ago. Things have probably changed a bit.
Note 3: Apparently the past tense of "plead" is "pleaded", not "pled".