After months of unrelenting news coverage and hours of testimony to a Commons committee on the SNC-Lavalin affair, the federal ethics watchdog still managed to unearth some details that give new life to the controversy. 

Mario Dion's report yesterday concludes that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau violated ethics law by improperly pressuring former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould to halt criminal prosecution of the Montreal engineering giant.

His report contained a few new nuggets -- including that two ex-Supreme Court justices had issued favourable opinions on Wilson-Raybould intervening on the SNC file.

In a statement issued after the findings were released Trudeau says that "The Commissioner took the strong view that all contact with the Attorney General on this issue was improper. I disagree with that conclusion, especially when so many people’s jobs were at stake."

Trudeau says that he was standing up "for people’s jobs and livelihoods across the country while upholding the rule of law and respecting the role of the Attorney General."

However, the PM says, "the buck stops with me, and I take full responsibility for everything that happened, and accept the report."

In response to the findings Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer says "We now have a clear picture of who Justin Trudeau truly is. And it’s not who he promised he would be.

"He promised he would accountable and ethical. Instead, time and time again, he has used the power of his office to enrich himself, reward his friends, and punish his critics."

Scheer says that as the federal election draws near the findings give Canadians a clear choice.

Wilson-Raybould responds

Jody Wilson-Raybould released a statement saying she is "grateful" for the report. 

"It represents a vindication of the independent role of the Attorney General and of the Director of Public Prosecutions in criminal prosecutions -- and reinforces for Canadians how essential it is to our democracy to uphold the rule of law and prosecutorial independence."

The former Attorney General says the findings reinforce what she has been saying since the beginning in the saga. That includes "multiple attempts to improperly influence my decision as Attorney General whether to intervene a criminal prosecution."

The RCMP says that they are carefully examining all the evidence available in this case.