Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau | Lars Hagberg/AFP via Getty Images Justin Trudeau’s reelection bid hits the rocks The Canadian leader faces unprecedented political peril as a fast-escalating scandal implicates him specifically.

All bets are now off about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's political survival.

An ethics scandal has plunged Canada's government into disarray, with the prime minister himself facing unprecedented political peril.

A flood of new details allege Trudeau and several senior government officials repeatedly pressured his former attorney general to drop corruption charges against a large construction company and reach a settlement agreement. Trudeau's political opponents sent police a letter Thursday requesting an investigation and called for Trudeau's resignation.

"He can no longer, and in good standing with a clear conscience, lead this nation," said Conservative Andrew Scheer, who hopes to replace Trudeau.

The prime minister brushed off that request and said Canadians will have a chance to judge him for themselves in an election this fall.

Until recently, his reelection appeared to be nearly a lock. The latest polls now show him slipping into a tight race — and those surveys don't even capture the latest influx of damaging detail.

"It’s like someone threw the chessboard into the air," said Darrell Bricker, CEO of Ipsos Public Affairs. "The pieces haven’t landed yet ... This was already a close race. [Trudeau's Liberals] couldn’t afford to stumble. And, yesterday was much more than a stumble."

The turning point was testimony Wednesday at a spectacular justice committee hearing in the Canadian House of Commons: On the same day Michael Cohen torched President Donald Trump at a committee hearing, a spurned ally of Trudeau's was scorching him too.

Former Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould, who was dropped by Trudeau but continues to sit in his party’s caucus, broke her silence after weeks of speculation about what she might say.

In painstaking detail she demolished the talking point from the government that Trudeau played no role in pressuring her to cut a plea deal with a Montreal-based company. Wilson-Raybould described and shared notes from about 10 meetings and 10 phone calls with 11 senior members of the government, including Trudeau. She said after she repeatedly fought pressure last fall from officials in Trudeau's office and other departments to deliver a non-prosecution agreement, the prime minister brought it up with her.

She said Trudeau noted in a meeting last September that the company, SNC-Lavalin, is a major, longstanding employer in his home town.

Wilson-Raybould also said the prime minister and others raised the suggestion that cutting a deal could help the provincial wing of their Liberal party in an election last October, which it ultimately lost.

"At that point the prime minister jumped in, stressing that there is an election in Quebec and that 'I am [a member of Parliament] in Quebec.' ... I was quite taken aback," Wilson-Raybould said. "My response — and I vividly remember this as well — was to ask the prime minister a direct question while looking him in the eye. I asked, 'Are you politically interfering with my role?'"

She said Trudeau said he wasn't interfering.

But she was soon demoted to a lesser role in the Cabinet, replaced with a new attorney general from Trudeau's home town, and she recently quit her Cabinet post.

Wilson-Raybould, who remains a member of parliament, told the committee hearing that she was, "having thoughts of the Saturday Night Massacre," the Watergate purging of the Justice Department.

The sole bright spot on the darkest day of Trudeau's term came when the former minister was asked whether Trudeau or others had committed a crime.

"I don't believe that," she replied.

The opposition seized the moment anyway: The Conservative leader hoping to replace Trudeau in an election later this year sent police a letter requesting an investigation.

Andrew Scheer asked the Mounties to investigate whether the acts described violated two criminal code items: one on obstruction of justice, the other against pressuring the attorney general. The RCMP has not commented.

He also called on Trudeau to resign.

“I was sickened and appalled by [the] story of inappropriate, and frankly bordering on illegal, pressure,” Scheer said. "Mr. Trudeau’s cabinet must now find a way forward, without him … They have a duty to govern this nation, not help a disgraced prime minister hang onto power.”

Trudeau disputed the characterization of events, but did not deny asking her to spare the company. He insisted he never directed the minister to drop charges.

“There are disagreements in perspective on this," Trudeau said Thursday. "But I can reassure Canadians that we were doing our job and we were doing it in a way that respects and defends our institutions."

He also sidestepped questions about calling a broader public inquiry, beyond ongoing parliamentary and ethics investigations.

One option available in theory is an early election.

If the opposition wants Trudeau gone, and if Trudeau said his fate is ultimately up to voters, they could call for an early election. The current election is officially set for October 23, but the Canadian constitution allows a vote at any time.

Several members of the Trudeau government dismissed the idea. A spokesperson for the prime minister, Eleanore Catenaro, said Trudeau squashed the idea of an early election call in a December interview.

"His comments still stand," Catenaro said.

And asked about early election talk, Trade Diversification Minister Jim Carr said Thursday: “[There's been] none that I’ve heard."

Minister of Innovation Navdeep Bains was with Trudeau at a press conference announcing a 24-year Canadian commitment to NASA's deep-space exploration project.

He sounded a similar note.

“We’re just focused on our mandate," Bains said in an interview. "We’re focused on executing our work for Canadians.”

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