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OTTAWA — The criminal case against Vice-Admiral Mark Norman was defined from the start by a colossal battle for access to tens of thousands of government documents.

That fight for disclosure of documents the government claimed were confidential, which consumed most of the past year, appears to have ultimately turned the tables in favour of Norman, the former second-in-command of the Canadian military.

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The National Post has learned federal prosecutors are expected to withdraw the breach of trust charge against Norman on Wednesday. The case formally began just over a year ago, in March 2018, when Norman was charged with breach of trust for allegedly leaking cabinet secrets about a $700-million navy supply ship project.

The first signs of trouble for the government came in the summer of 2018, when Norman’s lawyers Marie Henein and Christine Mainville started pressing for a waiver of cabinet privilege over all documents relevant to the case. The government had the right, if it chose to use it, to assert privilege over all of those documents — which would have kept them secret from Norman’s team.