Venue set for Friday's no-confidence motion against AG

The Hyatt Regency in Port of Spain has been selected as the venue for lawyers to debate a motion of no confidence against Attorney General Reginald Armour, SC, on July 15.

Armour is expected to attend the meeting which will be held both physically and virtually. The meet is expected to begin at 2 pm.

A notice to members last Friday said the meeting will address the matters set out in the requisition of 40 attorneys who called on the council to convene a special general meeting to debate the no-confidence motion over his role in the ongoing United States civil asset recovery case related to fraud allegations in the construction of the Piarco International Airport.

Lawyers will also vote on if a call should be made for Armour to resign as attorney general.

Only financial members will be allowed to vote.

On June 15, the group of attorneys presented the requisition to the association’s council, led by attorney Kiel Taklalsingh.

In the original requisition, Taklalsingh said he and the other members who signed the petition felt the issue should be discussed by the membership, as it concerns the integrity of the legal profession.

“Respectfully, these allegations, if left unaddressed, have the potential to erode public confidence in our profession, the administration of justice, and the rule of law,” Taklalsingh said.

In announcing the date for the debate of the motion, Lalla said the association had written to Armour "advising him of your letter wherein a requisition for a special general meeting (SGM) was made."

Armour, 65, who was appointed Attorney General in a surprise Cabinet reshuffle on March 16, failed to disclose his full involvement as a defence attorney for former government minister Brian Kuei Tung and Renee Pierre who are charged in the Piarco case when he met with US lawyers prosecuting Kuei Tung and others in a $200 million civil asset forfeiture case dragging on in Miami for 18 years.

On May 2, a US judge automatically disqualified Armour and the law firm Sequor Law on the grounds of an apparent conflict of interest as Armour was both chief prosecutor and a former defence attorney.

The government has since retained another US law firm, White and Case, to appeal the ruling by US judge Reemberto Diaz only against the disqualification of the law firm.

A request for an expedited appeal has been thrown out by the US appeal court. Former attorney general Faris Al-Rawi has replaced Armour as the client representative for the government in the US lawsuit which comes up for trial in September.

The Law Association has also opened a separate investigation into the AG's conduct and has made a request for all the documents in the matter.

In a full-page newspaper advertisement, published after public commentary over what transpired in the case, Armour denied he misled the US Court when he initially claimed he only played a minor role in representing Kuei Tung, which was limited to research and note-taking.

Armour claimed that his initial affidavit to the court was prepared while he was in Europe on vacation and he did not have access to his office records to full recall the extent of his involvement in the case over 14 years ago.

He also claimed that he was not allowed to rectify the error when he had an opportunity to verify his records shortly after.