Kamla: Let US Treasury probe US$2M find

Persad-Bissessar made her call before a crowd of a supporters at the UNC’s public meeting at the Penal Secondary School, Penal on Wednesday night. First, she restated previous questions to the Prime Minister about possible links between him, the People’s National Movement, (PNM) and the “plywood man” responsible for the US$2 million discovery.

“Do you know the person who is alleged to have brought in these US dollars? Is he a financier of the PNM? Does he visit your residence? Answer the question. Don’t distract and go off on tangents. Answer!” she said.

“So before this money disappears, before the rat eat it in some place, I am calling on the Prime Minister, if you are serious about this investigation, bring in experts from the United States. And I understand it is usually people from the Treasury Department because they are in charge of the dollars and so on. Bring them to check the serial numbers on these dollar bills.” Persad-Bissessar later renewed her call for Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi to be removed from office, this time for the US’ apparent “distrust” of the Attorney General’s (AG) Office.

“Look, I am a lawyer for how much umpteen years and I am not as young as I would like to be. So for all my years that I know, I have never heard or seen in our great country...where a foreign government and on top of that the government of the USA is saying they have no confidence, they do not trust the office of the AG. You ever hear that?” She was referring to a Newsday article where Queen’s Counsel James Lewis was seeking for the US to be heard in the judicial review proceedings against the Attorney General’s decision to sign an extradition request from the US for Jack Warner. Justice James Aboud had previously ruled against this, saying that the US’ interests would be sufficiently handled by the Office of the Attorney General. Asked by Chief Justice Ivor Archie whether he did not trust the AG’s Office, Lewis said, “Well that is one way of putting it.” He later clarified, however, that his statements meant that the US had different interests than the AG’s Office and so should be given a chance to be heard.