“If we are going at everyone for what they have mentioned (about Najib), then we might be going on a ‘pump gun approach’, which is shooting in the dark.”

As a lawyer, he said he might take up one case as a test case first and then “see how it develops”.

Hafarizam is also Umno’s legal adviser.

“(Defamation) cases in court are actually like war chess. A lawyer must know how to move the pawns, knights, castles and the king and queen.”

He added, at the end of the day, handling a case was going for checkmate or winning.

When asked if the premier would sue his biggest critic, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, he said he would advise Najib to sue.

“Maybe after the case (involving Mahathir and two others) is over, I might go back and tell him: ‘Sir, we have settled this case, it is time to consider whether we want to sue Tun M’,” Hafarizam said.

“But for now, we will do our best to defend the prime minister.”

Former Prime Minister Mahathir and two vocal critics of Najib (Khairuddin Abu Hassan and Anina Saaidudin) sued Najib over claims of abuse of powers in office on March 23. Case management will be fixed on April 20.

On another matter, Hafarizam said the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report, tabled in Parliament recently, showed that his client was not involved in 1MDB and the report showed no evidence of wrongdoing.

“WSJ (Wall Street Journal) can continue publishing.

“But the fact remains that all the reports, from PAC to the Attorney-General (AG) and Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), showed he is not involved.

“I think Malaysians are smarter than WSJ, and they are able to look at the report to see whether what they are saying is true and (from) the relevant reports from the authorities that were published.”