“We can prove this statement. Material collected by the commission substantiates this. It has been included in the probe but is currently a state secret. (&) Our findings are based on the evidence we collected. These are not assumptions. This is proof that has been obtained,” Bakas said at a press conference on Wednesday.

The MP, member of Democrats For Lithuania, told reporters that it would be considered how to declassify the information in question.

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“The Seimas will have to find a way how to reveal that connection, those relations. This can be done by the president or by the Seimas and the Commission for Secrets Protection Coordination. If it lacks some authority, we may amend laws, as the commission has proposed, so that the data would be available to the public,” Bakas said.

In turn, Conservative MP Bronislovas Matelis stated that the Office of the President had connections to fertiliser importers and that is why Nausėda called not to impose sanctions on Belarusian fertilisers.

“The commission concludes that after those numerous meetings influence might have been exerted on the presidency. There is evidence in the case, we had asked the VSD to declassify it, but the VSD refused,” he added.

The commission did not mention if certain individuals in Nausėda’s inner circle could still make the president vulnerable.

MP Matas Maldeikis said that some of the information was classified and revealing it would constitute a legal violation. However, he stressed that every sentence in the findings is based on evidence and what the commission is doing fully complies with law, and those who testified did so under oath.

“Why some individuals did not testify to us? I believe because they are unware of what the commission knows and are unsure where they could tell a lie. That is why some individuals did not wish to testify to the commission,” said Maldeikis.

Earlier, President Nausėda refused to answer 70 questions that the commission had sent. His spokesman Ridas Jasiulionis told ELTA that the head of state decided “not to waste MPs’ time with extra work” as they had already announced to have completed the inquiry and were drafting findings.

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 VSD 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 during the 2019 presidential election campaign. It later transpired that VSD employee Tomas Gailius was the whistleblower.

The ad hoc commission had to submit its findings to the Seimas by 10 March but the deadline was extended until 26 March.