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As an old criminal court reporter, I have watched dozens and dozens of cross-examinations, and rarely have they not been what the great American jurist John Henry Wigmore said they were: “The greatest legal engine ever invented for the discovery of truth.”

The deposed Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould was hardly exposed to a court-style cross this week, but make no mistake: She’s come a hell of a lot closer to it than any of the other sorry players in the SNC-Lavalin imbroglio. She emerged whole, and her evidence had the wonderful and unmistakable ring of truth.

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At the Justice Committee Wednesday, she was cogent and detailed, with names and dates and some contemporaneously made notes and/or emails and texts to help her already-clear memory. She was thoughtful and responsive to the questions.

Then look at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Finance Minister Bill Morneau, Liberal house leader Bardish Chagger and all the other Liberal MPs who nod like those bobble-heads you see in the back windows of cars — and with approximately the same intelligence.