OTTAWA — A false report of a sex scandal involving Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and a former student was removed from Facebook, at the request of his department, out of concern that it would threaten the integrity of the 2019 election.

Allen Sutherland, an assistant secretary to the cabinet at the Privy Council Office (PCO), testified at the Public Inquiry on Foreign Interference on Friday that Facebook brought the report about Trudeau to his attention in the days before the election.