In 1MDB trial, Najib claims former US AG Loretta Lynch set out to ‘literally to lynch me’
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 9 — Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak today claimed that the US Department of Justice’s (DoJ) forfeiture action in 2016 to recover more than US$1 billion of 1Malaysia Development Berhad’s (1MDB) assets was a conspiracy between two political parties in the US and Malaysia to change the government.
Testifying in his defence in his 1MDB trial here, Najib also highlighted US DoJ’s 2021 move to block his bid to get access to additional evidence from Goldman Sachs and its former banker Tim Leissner in US courts, which he claimed would exonerate him and help in his defence in the 1MDB trial in Malaysia’s courts.
“I am of the view that the DoJ was so protective of this exculpatory evidence because it must be so beneficial to me that it would directly rebut the wild allegations raised in their civil forfeiture actions, including the US Department of Justice’s civil forfeiture suit filed in 2016, in the case of United States of America v. Wolf of Wall Street Motion Picture.
“I also believe this forfeiture action was politically motivated and orchestrated as part of a collaboration between the United States Democratic Party and the then-opposition party in Malaysia in order to effect a regime change in Malaysia,” he told the High Court here, without naming the then opposition party.
Pakatan Harapan was the opposition coalition in 2016, and is now part of the ruling government.
In 2016 when the US DoJ launched its forfeiture suit, Najib was still the prime minister of Malaysia and heading the ruling coalition Barisan Nasional.
“I further believe that this collaboration was the key motive in obstructing my access to the exculpatory evidence as it would undermine their narrative and expose the untruths in their allegations against me,” he claimed.
When his defence lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah asked him to confirm if the US attorney general at the time, Loretta Lynch, had publicly disclosed related information, Najib replied in the affirmative.
“Yes, it was very well known what Loretta Lynch did, it was literally to lynch me,” he said.
