OTTAWA — Allegations about President Donald Trump in a new book by former White House official John Bolton could be a factor in Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou’s fight to avoid extradition from Canada to the United States.
Passages from the book penned by Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser, are likely to be explored as a way to boost arguments of political involvement in the case of the Chinese telecom giant’s chief financial officer, according to legal experts and a source familiar with her defense. Of particular interest are moments in which Bolton says Trump linked the case to a potential U.S. trade deal with China.
Bolton writes in the book that Trump viewed concerns raised by his advisers about Huawei and the ZTE telecom firm being national security threats as “an opportunity to make personal gestures to" Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“In 2018, for example, he reversed penalties that [Wilbur] Ross and the Commerce Department had imposed on ZTE,” Bolton wrote in his tell-all memoir titled “The Room Where it Happened,” which is scheduled for release Tuesday.
“In 2019, he offered to reverse criminal prosecution against Huawei if it would help in the trade deal — which, of course, was primarily about getting Trump re-elected in 2020.”
Meng’s case has wedged middle-power Canada into the wider clash between two heavyweights: China and the U.S. Her arrest has angered Beijing, which has called Canada an accomplice in a "grave political incident," halted some key Canadian agricultural exports and detained two Canadians who were formally charged last week with spying.
Meng was arrested by Canadian police in December 2018 on an extradition warrant from the U.S. Her case, which is being heard by a Vancouver court and could take years, is based on fraud charges connected to her alleged violation of U.S. sanctions on Iran.
Meng’s case is due back in court Tuesday.
The source said the new information in Bolton’s book will be explored and could be used by Meng’s defense team to bolster arguments that Trump’s musings after her arrest about a U.S. trade deal with China has tainted her extradition case with politics.
During a 2018 interview, Trump said he would be willing to intervene in Meng’s case if it would help the U.S. land a trade deal with China or serve other American national security interests.
The source said they believe the allegations in Bolton’s book make the U.S. extradition request more problematic, but they added it remains to be seen if and how the defense could even use the new details in the courtroom. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter in public.
Trump blasted Bolton’s book last week on Twitter as “pure fiction” and “a compilation of lies and made up stories, all intended to make me look bad.” On Saturday, a federal judge denied the Trump administration's request to prevent its release.
Donald Bayne, an Ottawa lawyer with extensive experience with extradition cases, said in an interview that he’s sure Meng’s legal team will explore using Bolton’s book in court.
"As a defense lawyer you don’t close off avenues, you explore them — everything you can to assist your client,” said Bayne, who represents the family of Michael Kovrig, one of the two Canadians charged in China with spying.
Kovrig and Michael Spavor are being held behind bars in China, where they haven't had access to consular services for months and have had almost no contact with their families.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has called their detentions arbitrary and has pushed for their release. He’s also sought help from the international community — including from the Trump administration — to put pressure on China.
Bayne said he thinks Bolton’s allegations pose evidentiary problems. They include how much weight a judge will give to a statement without the witness present, the fact that Bolton cannot easily be compelled to testify in Canada because he’s an American and bringing him into the case would cause a stir, and that the passage is based on one person saying he heard another person say it.
“If it’s merely a hearsay assertion it might be given very little weight,” he said.
“Whereas Trump’s public pronouncements as the president of the U.S. do form a strong basis for a Sec. 7 abuse of process application to stay the proceedings because the criminal process of extradition is being used for political purposes to extract or extort a better trade deal politically.”
Bayne argues Trump’s own public statements appear to be a very viable abuse of process application.
U.S. lawyer Tim O’Toole, a member at the law firm Miller & Chevalier, said in an interview that Bolton’s allegations enhance claims of a political trade off — the charges against Huawei, and presumably Meng, in exchange for favorable treatment from China on other matters.
“This adds, I think, almost a direct political component to the equation that I haven’t seen there before,” said O’Toole.
Last month, a British Columbia judge threw out Meng’s request to be discharged from the process after ruling the case against her satisfied the “double criminality” test, which says countries may only hand over someone on an allegation that is a criminal offense in their own jurisdiction.
Meng's lawyers are expected to argue she was a victim of an abuse of process by authorities and political interference over Trump's remarks.
Guy Saint-Jacques, who was Canada's ambassador to China from 2012 to 2016, said in an interview that the excerpts from Bolton’s book made it clear to him that Meng’s arrest was political.
“It’s a confirmation and that will make China repeat that Canada is doing the bidding of the U.S., all this is political and that we should release Ms. Meng,” Saint-Jacques said.
“But for Canada the rule of law is important and we have to abide by the extradition treaty and hope that the U.S. will also do the same.”
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