Gerald Butts is set to have his say on Wednesday morning.
The former principal secretary to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is scheduled to testify before the Commons justice committee on the SNC-Lavalin affair at 10 a.m. ET.
WATCH: Feb. 25 — No answer from Justin Trudeau on whether he knew about Butts and Wilson-Raybould meeting
There, he will tell his side of the story after ex-attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould accused people within the cabinet, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and the Privy Council Office (PCO) of inappropriately pressuring her to move ahead with a deferred prosecution agreement for the Quebec-based engineering giant.
Butts announced his resignation amid the affair on Feb. 18, denying at the time that he — or anyone in the PMO — pressured her inappropriately to help SNC-Lavalin avoid a criminal prosecution.
READ MORE: Jody Wilson-Raybould’s testimony — read the full transcript of her opening remarks
His name subsequently popped up numerous times in Wilson-Raybould’s testimony before the committee.
She said that the two of them met at the Chateau Laurier in Ottawa on Dec. 5, 2018.
Both had sought out a meeting where she wanted to talk about the “barrage of people hounding me and my staff.”
WATCH: March 1 — Wilson-Raybould’s chief of staff told ‘we would…line up all kinds of op eds’
She said she told Butts about how she needed “everybody to stop talking to me about SNC, as I had made up my mind and the engagements were inappropriate.”
Butts, Wilson-Raybould said, “then took over the conversation and said how we need a solution on the SNC stuff.
“He said I needed to find a solution.”
Wilson-Raybould said she would not do that — and reiterated a course of action she had suggested to Michael Wernick, the clerk of the Privy Council, that SNC-Lavalin could write a letter expressing concerns about prosecution, and that she would send it to the director of public prosecutions.
According to Wilson-Raybould, Butts then said that the legislation governing the director of public prosecutions was a “statute passed by Harper and that he does not like the law.”
WATCH: March 3 — Jody Wilson-Raybould’s accusations to face scrutiny in week ahead
She testified that her then-chief of staff Jessica Prince met with Butts and Katie Telford, Trudeau’s own chief of staff, on Dec. 18. Butts and Telford, she said, wanted to know where Wilson-Raybould was in terms of finding a solution in the SNC-Lavalin matter.
Wilson-Raybould was told that during that meeting, Butts said, “Jess, there is no solution here that does not involve some interference.”
READ MORE: Justin Trudeau’s top adviser Gerald Butts resigns amid SNC-Lavalin affair
Butts’ testimony comes as Trudeau is expected to change his tone on the SNC-Lavalin matter, after he had a meeting with his closest advisors on Tuesday.
The prime minister could strike a more apologetic tone in a statement to Canadians, which would not acknowledge wrongdoing, but could address allegations of inappropriate pressure.
- With files from Mercedes Stephenson