“The commission got carried away with the role of prosecutors, without having any constitutional or legal authority for this. It was formed inappropriately, it used methods that are incompatible with methods of a democratic society. It sowed doubt about the activities of various services that are vital for Lithuania’s security. Essentially it had just one goal – to attempt to discredit a candidate who is disliked by some political forces,” Nausėda told the media during a visit to Gargždai city on Tuesday.
The Seimas Commission for Ethics and Procedures on Tuesday stated that the parliamentary inquiry into the intelligence whistleblower’s report had unlawfully revealed the identity of Tomas Gailius, former employee of the VSD.
However, commenting about this to reporters, Speaker of the Seimas Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen reminded that political analyst Marius Laurinavičius was the first to reveal the identity of the whistleblower in an interview in March 2023.
What is more, ethics watchdogs also believe that the parliamentary commission exceeded its powers and that its chairman, MP Vytautas Bakas, was biased.
The State Security Department (VSD), the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Special Investigation Service (STT) had addressed ethics watchdogs asking to assess the actions of the ad hoc commission.
Earlier, in the consideration stage, parliament approved the findings of the ad hoc commission and the final vote in the adoption stage remains.
As reported, the parliamentary probe found that VSD Director Darius Jauniškis had aided then presidential candidate Nausėda in 2019 by collecting intelligence information about people from his environment. It also concluded that members of his election campaign in 2018-2019 maintained ties with representatives of Belarusian fertiliser business, used to meet with them and when Nausėda was elected as the president, he would invite these businesspeople to events at the Presidential Palace.
In addition, the inquiry stated that by refusing to testify the president hindered parliament in carrying out its duties and thus violated the Constitution and the oath to respect and follow the law.
The ad hoc commission believes that STT Director Linas Pernavas abused his powers by refusing to provide criminal intelligence information and misled MPs.
The VSD whistleblower’s story first attracted parliament’s attention in 2019. However, the Seimas Committee on National Security and Defence concluded at the time that the agency acted within its competence.
Parliament returned to the issue after investigative journalists Dovydas Pancerovas and Birutė Davidonytė published the book A Whistleblower and the President, which revealed a potentially unlawful collection of information about private citizens by the VSD during the 2019 presidential election campaign. It later transpired that VSD employee Tomas Gailius was the whistleblower.