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Did Boris Johnson Lie to the Queen?

Jamie Dettmer

   Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson flatly denied Thursday that he
   lied to Britain's monarch when asking Queen Elizabeth to suspend
   parliament for five weeks in the run-up to a Brexit deadline -- a
   controversial suspension that's being challenged in the country's
   courts and drawing reluctant judges deep into political waters.

   Asked if he had lied to the Queen when advising her to prorogue
   [suspend] Parliament, and whether he had misled her about his reasons
   for wanting a suspension, he replied: "Absolutely not." He said it was
   "nonsense" to suggest the prorogation was anything out of the ordinary
   or a bid to undermine democracy.

   His comments came hours after after a three-judge Scottish court ruled
   that his government's advice to the Queen, which led to the five-week
   prorogation that started Monday, was "unlawful" because it basically
   disguised the government's true reason for wanting a parliamentary
   shutdown.

   The Scottish ruling sent shock waves through Britain's already
   Brexit-battered political system and has set the stage for a dramatic
   legal showdown on Tuesday. This is when the country's Supreme Court
   will have to decide whether the Scottish ruling is correct -- or
   whether instead to uphold two opposed rulings from English and Northern
   Irish courts, which both held the parliamentary suspension lawful.

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