Another batch of legal advice has been released by the Scottish Government to the Alex Salmond Inquiry.
In the documents, a QC acting for the Government warned that Salmond was pursuing a "scorched earth" approach in relation to his legal challenge to how an investigation into was carried out.
Deputy First Minister John Swinney said the release "utterly" disproved a conspiracy theory by Salmond around the Government's handling of the case.
A Holyrood committee is investigating the Government’s mis-handling of sexual misconduct complaints against Salmond when he was First Minister.
Salmond took the government to court and it was agreed the internal probe, which destroyed his friendship with Sturgeon, had been unlawful.
The flaw in the botched investigation, which cost the taxpayer over £600,000, was that the Government’s Investigating Officer had prior contact with the female complainers.
A key controversy is over the Government’s 2018 legal advice in relation to Salmond’s judicial review.
In recent months the Government has twice ignored votes of parliament to hand over the material.
It was only after a motion of no confidence was tabled in Sturgeon’s deputy John Swinney, who has led on the issue, that the Government made it available to the Committee.
MSPs have long believed delays in conceding the judicial review by the Government increased the costs to the taxpayer.
The first release from earlier this week showed that the government’s external lawyers had serious concerns about the case in October 2018 - two months before conceding.
On December 6th, 2018, counsel argued that the “least worst” option would be to concede, but days later an email was sent which stated that the Lord Advocate did not want to concede.
Two weeks later, after counsel became increasingly concerned, the Government conceded to Salmond.
A second batch of legal advice, released yesterday, appeared to contradict Salmond’s claim of a plot to delay the civil case in the hope it would be overtaken by criminal proceedings he faced.
The Government this afternoon released more documents to the Inquiry.
In a legal note by QC Roddy Dunlop and Solicitor Advocate Christine O’Neill on December 17th, 2018, at which point counsel had already suggested conceding, the lawyers provided comments on Salmond’s approach to the hearing:
“It has become increasingly clear that the approach of the petitioner in this matter is one which may appropriately be described as a “scorched earth” one.
“It is clear that there is no concern on his part as to who might be criticised, or harmed, as a result of these proceedings. We understand that this is well understood by those “in the crosshairs” – most obviously the Permanent Secretary and the First Minister.
“If instructions are to proceed notwithstanding then so be it – we are not in a position where we are professionally unable to mount a defence (because, for example, there is no statable defence). We are, however, perilously close to such a situation. We are firmly of the view that at least one of the challenges mounted by the petitioner will be successful.”
In another section, the lawyers outlined their thoughts on an unredacted email chain involving discussions between civil servants.
They wrote: “We were (and remain) concerned that it will add fuel to the fire of the petitioner’s ‘conspiracy theory’.”
Swinney said: “Today the Scottish Government has released further legal advice documents to provide a clear picture of the key legal advice received about the judicial review brought by Alex Salmond.
“This addresses the unfounded and unfair criticism that the Scottish Government was seeking to suppress information about advice received during November 2018. We are publishing two written notes form Counsel from early November, after which a process of adjustments to grounds and answers continued during November and into December 2018.
“I am completely clear that these documents, taken in their entirety, utterly disprove the conspiracy theory that the Scottish Government delayed the concession of the judicial review or ignored advice from counsel, or that there was a plot against Mr Salmond."
