The publication of the full Egrant report proved that there had been an attempt to frame him, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said on Wednesday.
Speaking on the Labour Party’s ONE radio, Dr Muscat said that now that the entire 1,500-page inquiry had been released, the public could see that claims that he or his wife Michelle owned the offshore company Egrant Inc. were “unfounded”.
"It is clear that there was a frame-up attempt against me," he said.
Opposition leader Adrian Delia was handed a copy of the full Egrant inquiry on Monday following a months-long legal battle.
He released the document on Tuesday evening, saying the public deserved to know the whole truth.
Dr Muscat said that, as Prime Minister, he had to act responsibly when it came to the release of such documents.
He had sought advice from legal advisers and followed the direction given to him by State institutions not to release the full document as it could prejudice or even jeopardise ongoing investigations and other proceedings.
Dr Muscat said Dr Delia had taken that particular problem off his plate, because now “I don’t have to deal with wanting to publish it, but not being able to”.
Now that it was out, Dr Muscat said, the public had all the proof available “about how much they lied about me and my wife”.
“In past months there were some spinning tales that the report wasn’t released because it wasn’t clear whether Egrant was mine or not. Now it is clear for all to see,” he said.
Dr Muscat said the report also found that someone had falsified signatures in documents which claimed Mrs Muscat owned Egrant.
The outgoing Labour leader said he knew better than to expect an apology from “those who spun this lie”, but he would not forget the ordeal he and his family had been through.
Dr Muscat also weighed in on a section of the report which deals with contradictory testimony given by late journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia and her whistleblower source Maria Effimova.
“There had been some who tried to destabilise the country… and this was based on he said she said,” Dr Muscat told his PL station interviewer.
Dr Muscat also took merit for having called for a magistrate’s inquiry as soon as the claims about him and his wife had first been made.
Dr Delia, on the other hand, had never called for an inquiry into claims Ms Caruana Galizia made about his alleged money laundering activity.
“Maybe Simon Busuttil will call for a magistrate to look into that too, I don’t know,” he said.
Ultimately, Dr Muscat said, Dr Delia would have to shoulder responsibility if he jeopardised any ongoing investigations by releasing the full document.
Similarly, Dr Busuttil would have to shoulder political responsibility for the “Egrant lie”.