By Prior Beharry
ATTORNEY GENERAL Reginald Armour, SC, is maintaining that he did not participate in any trial-related issues in the case in the Miami court arising from alleged fraud and corruption in the construction of the Piarco International Airport project.
On Monday evening Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar, SC, called for Armour to be fired saying that there was now a constitutional crisis as he cannot recuse himself from the case as the substantive AG.
In private practice, Armour had represented former finance minister Brian Kuei Tung his girlfriend René Pierre in criminal proceedings and has now been disqualified from civil proceedings in the Mimi court.
Contacted on Tuesday for comment on the call by Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar to have him fired, Armour responded to AZP News with most of a release he had issued on Saturday.
He said, “I did not participate in any trail related issue of any kind and delegated the continued case preparation to former attorney general, Honourable Mr Faris A-Rawi and (Director of Civil Litigation,
Attorney General’s Secretariat) Ms (Tenille) Ramkissoon.”
AZP News asked Armour for a comment on Persad-Bissessar calling for him to be removed as AG.
The questions posed to him were:
- Are you conflicted in the Miami case?
- Can you recuse yourself in the matter when under the Constitution the AG is responsible for all legal proceedings by the State?
- Mr Al-Rawi is the Minister of Local Government and all his duties have been gazette and these do not include representing T&T in legal matters as in the case in question?
In response he reiterated that he left the country on April 12 and returned on May 1. He said it was a family vacation arranged before his appointment as AG. He noted that Al-Rawi acted during his absence.
Armour said that while abroad he received a call from the attorneys for Sequor Law who told him that defendants Steve Ferguson and Kuei Tung had filed motions to strike out the Miami case and to disqualify Sequor too. He said they cited an alleged conflict due to his appointment as AG of T&T.
He said he signed an affidavit in opposition to the strike out motion on April 24 from his hotel room in Ireland and it was emailed to Al-Rawi who sent it to Sequor.
Armour said, “In that affidavit I gave my best recollection, stating the fact that I did not recollect any details of my former representation of Mr Kuei Tung or Ms Pierre nor was I in possession of any files related to that former representation. I also gave my best recollection of my disclosure of conflict of interest declared to Sequor Law on the 30th March.”
While still abroad, he said, Al Rawi told him via telephone that the judge in the 11th Judicial Court in Miami had disqualified Sequor from continuing in the matter because of their contact with him as AG.
Armour said he had recused himself from the case and left all decisions on how to proceed to Al-Rawi.
He said, “Since my return to Trinidad and Tobago on the 1st May 2022 and my re-assumption of my substantive responsibilities I have been advised by the Honourable Al Rawi that the ROTT has i) appealed the decision of the judge as being erroneous in law, ii) that notwithstanding that appeal and in the interest of not providing any cause for unwarranted allegations affecting the capacity of attorneys to continue with the prosecution of the Miami Case, the ROTT has retained new attorneys to replace the firm of Sequor Law, such new replacement attorneys being the Law Firm of White & Case LLP, Southeast Financial Center, 200 South Biscayne Blvd, Suite 4900, Miami FL 33131– 2352.”
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