Law Association votes on AG Armour

ON Friday the country's attorneys-at-law will be able to give their verdict on Attorney General Reginald Armour, SC, as a no-confidence motion comes before the Law Association of Trinidad and Tobago (LATT.)

Armour will attend the part physical, part virtual meeting to defend himself. The debate will be held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Port of Spain from 2 pm.

Armour, as AG, is titular head of the Bar of Trinidad and Tobago, legal adviser to the Government and Parliament, and the representative of Trinidad and Tobago in lawsuits filed by or against the State.

As new AG, Armour's role was to represent TT in a US civil lawsuit related to corruption in the Piarco Airport project, but two defendants, Brian Kuei Tung and Steve Ferguson, alleged a conflict of interest, as Armour once had been one of Kuei Tung's attorneys.

In an affidavits to the Miami/Dade court, Armour claimed to have served only in a junior role but old news reports resurfaced of him having grilled a police witness, Joanne Archie.

The US court ruled him and the State's law firm Sequor Law ineligible, with TT now due to spend millions of dollars more in legal fees to hire new counsel.

A petition to LATT by a group of attorneys said, "The crux of the allegation is that Mr Armour has provided false and misleading evidence on oath, on behalf of the state of TT, to a court of law in the United States.

"They are demonstrably false given the affidavit evidence in the US proceedings, well known facts in the public domain, and matters reported in the media which are materially undisputed."

Meanwhile the parliamentary Opposition has been walking out of the chamber each time Armour speaks, to express their lack of confidence in him.

Israel Khan, SC, had called on Armour to resign, speaking to Newsday a month ago, but on Thursday issued a statement urging the withdrawal of the no-confidence motion.

He said Armour was well known for his "honesty, integrity and forthwith advocacy" with not a single allegation of impropriety or chicanery made against him in 40 years of practice.

Khan said Armour's remarks to the court were "not blatantly and obviously false."

He urged Armour to present himself to the LATT, saying, "He must beg our pardon."