It’s one of those bad weeks for Joseph Muscat.

And the bad news has come twice from the courts of law.

Last week, Magistrate Doreen Clarke ruled that three ministers – Edward Scicluna, Chris Cardona and Konrad Mizzi – be put under investigation in connection with the deal the government signed with VGH on three public hospitals, St Luke’s, Karen Grech and Gozo General.

It was the second time that a magistrate ordered that the three Cabinet members are investigated for their role in this deal. That time, the ruling given by Magistrate Claire Stafrace Zammit was overturned on appeal by Mr Justice Giovanni Grixti. A new case was filed and a second magistrate came to the same conclusion as the first one. The three ministers have again given notice of appeal, a case that was assigned to Madam Justice Consuelo Herrera who has abstained since her brother, Minister Jose Herrera, is a member of the Cabinet. We have to wait and see what the second judge will decide.

As if this was not enough, another magistrate, Victor Asciak, last Monday warned OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri that he (Schembri) would be sanctioned unless he answers questions in court in relation to a libel case that Schembri himself had instituted against former Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil. Schembri insisted that he had been given legal advice not to answer, and quickly withdrew the libel case when it became clear that the magistrate would not have tolerated more antics.

It was natural that after Schembri pulled out, he was accused of being a coward for not wanting to answer questions, and that he did not do so because he did not want to incriminate himself. Schembri’s answer was that he is giving his replies in magisterial inquiries. But, as Schembri knows well, it is one thing giving answers in an inquiry which is a closed hearing, and another thing to answer questions in open court with the media present, and facing lawyers prepared with tens of questions on his doings.

In spite of all this, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat continues to defend his ministers and his chief of staff. The VGH deal was approved by the Cabinet and, as such, has his own blessing. So if the investigation reveals any wrongdoing, Muscat will have to shoulder responsibility there too.

The same goes for the Schembri case. Muscat and Schembri are joined at the hip, politically speaking, and anything Schembri does has a bearing on the PM’s future too. Muscat has consistently protected Schembri, and he was there to shield him on Monday too. So if, one fine day, Schembri falters, Muscat would have to falter too.

Seeing all this, the government has unsuccessfully tried to steer public discussion away from these two damaging cases. It tried on Monday by having the head of the civil service reply to the Standards Commissioner’s report, which said it was wrong to have MPs taking up government appointments. This did not work. So it tried on Tuesday by publishing a report to quash allegations of collusion between a law firm and a minister on the Individual Investor Programme.

This did not work either – simply because the Schembri story is too big to be overshadowed by anything else. The problem for Muscat is that although the story has been in the public domain for three years, it still generates the same ill-feeling when it resurfaces after some time on the back-burner.

And it will continue to be so until the matter is resolved.