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Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau has rejected calls to resign over a scandal that is engulfing his administration, saying he and his staff always acted properly and that Canadians will get to have their say on the matter at the federal election in October.

His comments came after Canada’s former minister of justice and attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould described a consistent, sustained and inappropriate effort by senior officials close to the prime minister who were attempting to dissuade her from prosecuting a Canadian engineering company accused of bribery.

In searing testimony to the justice committee on Wednesday, Wilson-Raybould said the pressure on her included “veiled threats” if she did not acquiesce.

“I experienced a consistent and sustained effort by many people within the government to seek to politically interfere in the exercise of prosecutorial discretion in my role as the attorney general of Canada in an inappropriate effort,” she said in her opening statement.

Wilson-Raybould’s appearance before the committee marked her first public comments on the scandal, which has become the biggest crisis of Trudeau’s administration.