Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has defended Attorney General John Jeremie following controversial statements about the “1%”, saying the law applies to everyone.“My Government’s position is clear. Pursuant to the maxim ‘Justice is blind’ the law applies equally to every citizen, regardless of their financial status, social standing, political connections, or influence,” said Persad-Bissessar yesterday.She was responding to questions from the Express about Jeremie’s statement in Parliament Wednesday that some of the “1%” have had their visas revoked by the United States government based on security intelligence.Emphasising that no one was above the law, the Prime Minister said: “What the Attorney General made clear yesterday is that no individual or group is above the law. Whether criminal elements identify themselves as the “Sixx”, the “Seven”, the “1%”, or by any other name, they are all subject to the laws of Trinidad and Tobago and will be treated accordingly by the justice system.”Persad-Bissessar said her Government is committed to upholding the rule of law fairly and consistently.There can be no special treatment and no immunity from legal consequences for anyone based on wealth, status or association, she added.She also made it clear that Trinidad and Tobago has no part in the US visa application process.The Prime Minister said the responsibility of local law enforcement is to ensure the laws of the land are applied equally to all.“We will review the data at time to make appropriate decisions. It’s too early to speculate. All law-abiding citizens have nothing to fear,” she said.The Prime Minister also said “the 1% community consists of persons of many ethnic groups, it does not consist of a singular ethnic group”.Persad-Bissessar also said the State was getting foreign assistance to track billions of US dollars that have been sent out of the country over the last 20 years.“Some current and former high-ranking officials of local banks facilitated the sale of massive amounts of foreign currency to local businesses which was then transferred to foreign accounts linked to cartels and also used to purchase real estate holdings and businesses in collaboration with cartels,” she said.She added that billions of dollars in illegal drugs had passed through this country over the last 25 years and no one could answer how the drugs were paid for.“The State is finally getting assistance to deal with drug trafficking and money laundering and we will let the chips fall where they may,” she added.What the AG said te of emergency, Jeremie told Parliament on Wednesday that the US government had revoked the visas of certain members of the “1%” in T&T.“We all know that our American friends have sophisticated means of intelligence gathering. They appear now to have determined that certain individuals should not, as a result of their activities, be travelling to the United States, and they have taken action to ensure that that does not happen,” he stated.Jeremie said the Government was dealing with gangs that were not limited to those identified by numbers such as Sixx, Seven and Eight, nor were they confined to any particular class or geographic location.According to the AG, a gang was defined as a combination of two or more people, whether formally or informally organised, who engaged in gang-related activity.“There are also gangs who describe themselves in terms of percentages. For example, the 1%,” he said.The Attorney General pointed to the group’s influence, saying: “They control and own large segments of our economy. They thrived for a decade under the PNM. They have absolutely no problem accessing any amount of US dollars at any point in time to fund their businesses, their leisure travel, their lifestyles, while the rest of us struggle and line up in banks to get $200 to make foreign trips and only if we show evidence of a ticket to travel.”He said members of the group counted their foreign exchange allotments in hundreds of thousands of dollars charged to their credit cards each month on a revolving basis.“They funded the PNM. They were revered by the PNM. They have taken over the PNM. Those opposites are their ready, happy, and willing pawns,” he said.Jeremie said his curiosity was first roused by a question from a Guardian Media Ltd journalist, pointing out that the newspaper was owned by the group.He said the journalist asked whether several US visas belonging to people associated with the group had been revoked. According to Jeremie, he initially ignored the question, but was “subsequently visited in my office by a number of persons who said that their US visas had been revoked. We all know that our American friends have sophisticated means of intelligence gathering”.