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Joseph Nye Welch: Remember that name.

He was an American lawyer, and chief counsel to the U.S. Army. He died long ago. But even from the grave, even after so many years have gone by, Welch has something important to say about the sordid scandal known as Lavscam.

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The ethics commissioner had something to say, too, as it turned out. And this week he said it: “The authority of the prime minister and his office was used to circumvent, undermine and ultimately attempt to discredit the decision of the director of public prosecutions as well as the authority of Ms. (Jody) Wilson-Raybould as the Crown’s chief law officer.”

That sentence — and the commissioner’s finding that Justin Trudeau and his thugs did, indeed, conspire to stop the criminal prosecution of a Quebec-based donor to his Liberal party, SNC-Lavalin — has myriad implications for many people. Here are just a few.

— Andrew Scheer: When the Lavscam story broke in the Globe and Mail, the Conservative Party leader was criticized by some in his own party for demanding Trudeau’s resignation. It is clear, now, he was right to do so. It’s also equally clear that Scheer need not worry himself about Trudeau’s puerile threat to sue him for defamation. Truth, after all, is an absolute defence to a libel claim.