The Crown dropped its case against a federal bureaucrat accused of leaking secret documents from the cabinet for a $ 700 million shipbuilding contract.
Matthew Matchet has left the Ottawa court as a free man after Judge Hugh McLean briefed the jury hearing a breach of trust case on the Crown’s decision.
The surprising development came on the fourth day of what was expected to be a four-week trial.
Matchett was charged in 2019 with leaking documents related to a shipbuilding deal between the Chantier Davie shipyard in Quebec and the federal government.
The expiration is said to have occurred in 2015, when the newly elected Liberal government decided to postpone the finalization of a contract with Davey to lease a temporary supply ship for the Navy.
Crown’s case fell apart after the main witness, longtime lobbyist Brian Mercero, testified that he could not remember whether Matchet had given him a secret note to the cabinet.
Crown prosecutor Mark Covan’s decision to drop the charge today comes more than three years after the Crown’s case against Vice Admiral Mark Norman was dropped.
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