Lord Advocate James Wolffe to face Salmond Inquiry again amid accusations of corruption within the Crown Office
The Crown Office is facing intense pressure among concerted political attacks on its integrity and its independence from the Scottish Government.
Amid the political drama of Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon’s appearances in front of the harassment complaints committee, the Lord Advocate James Wolffe QC will once again answer questions from MSPS today.
The dual role of the Lord Advocate, as head of the Crown Office and Cabinet member as law officer and main legal adviser, is under exceptional scrutiny from political opponents of the First Minister.
The charges against Mr Wolffe are numerous and he is one of the few individuals Mr Salmond said on Friday should resign or, at the very least, “consider his position”.
The former first minister’s attacks on the Crown were not institutional, but they were highly personal. "We should not con fuse institutional failure with personnel,” he said.
Accusing the Crown of “obstructing” the committee, Mr Salmond placed the blame with its leadership.
The belief permeating through Mr Salmond’s evidence is that he was targeted as a political foe by those within the SNP and within the Scottish Government, aided by a Crown office co wed by political influence.
It is the latter of these that will be the subject of forensic scrutiny today.
Mr Wolffe heads the organisation that brought ultimately unsuccessful criminal charges against Mr Salmond.
He is also the scottish government’ s main legal adviser–the man who is ultimately responsible for legal advice to the cabinet and who had an integral role in the decision to continue with the judicial review.
During the inquiry, the Crown has been less than helpful.
It refused to hand over evidence until the unprecedented use of Holyrood’s powers under the Scotland Act, a drama reprised following Mr Salmond’s allegations of further text messages which prove a conspiracy against him.
It has also acted on concerns around potential contempt of court breaches linked to the criminal trial, most explosively in its intervention around the former first minister’s evidence on the ministerial code last week.