KUALA LUMPUR, March 3 — Former deputy prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin today rejected allegations that he was involved in a conspiracy with former attorney-general Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail to bring down Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

Muhyiddin said he had only discussed national issues with the former AG in his capacity as deputy prime minister on national issues and had no part in the plot as alleged by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said.

“I want to respond to Azalina’s statement ... There is no conspiracy. As I explained, the former AG in certain instances told me the developments on the 1MDB case,” he said, referring to 1Malaysia Development Bhd.

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“As the deputy prime minister at the time, I had the right to know the developments in the case as it was a national issue,” he told reporters in a press conference at Bukit Damansara today.

Muhyiddin was removed as deputy prime minister last year for openly criticising Putrajaya’s handling of the 1MDB issue.

The Pagoh MP added today that whatever information he had on 1MDB was already public knowledge.

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In a statement regarding Muhyiddin’s admission on a briefing with a former AG, Azalina said the former deputy prime minister’s disclosure was solid evidence of a high-level conspiracy to unseat Najib through undemocratic means.

The minister in the Prime Minister’s Department went a step further and said that Muhyiddin’s admission only came after he was suspended as deputy Umno president, and suggested that he may be complicit in the ouster plot against his boss.

The Pengerang MP was referencing Muhyiddin’s Facebook statement last week in response to the unanimous decision by the Umno supreme council to suspend him a day earlier.

In the lengthy statement, Muhyiddin claimed to have been briefed by a former attorney-general while both were still in office, of alleged evidence of wrongdoing involving the RM2.6 billion deposited in the prime minister’s accounts in 2013.