Rahman, referring to the 251-page document filed by DoJ last week in seeking to seize assets it said were bought using funds stolen from 1MDB, said such “unnecessary” details were insinuating at Prime Minister Najib Razak’s wife, Rosmah Mansor.
“You (the DoJ) had mocked… you gave the impression that Rosmah and the diamond did something wrong,” he said.
“But in the documents you submitted, you didn’t include the diamond as one of the items that you plan to seize.
Rosmah was not named in DoJ’s civil forfeiture suit filed last Thursday.
The filings however said Malaysian businessman Low Taek Jho (Jho Low) had purchased a 22-carat pink diamond necklace worth US$27.3 million for the “wife of MO1”.
Last year, Rahman reportedly said that it was “obvious” that MO1, which DoJ said was a reference to a high ranking 1MDB official, was the prime minister.
Asked today if he still believed Najib was indeed M01, Rahman said he already talked about it “many times before” and as such, there was “no need to talk about it again”.
He said DoJ had “rushed” into publishing the details despite its investigation still ongoing, and questioned who in Malaysia had collaborated with the agency.
“I’m wondering (because) you still have an investigation going on, yet you come out with statements that are so flamboyant, over the top, and full of insinuations.
“You have to remember, you’re talking about a country that is about to go into an election, and you know these kind of statements will be fully utilised and abused by the opposition.
“So I had really hoped DoJ would have exercised some restraint,” said the Sabah politician.
Rahman said the manner in which the findings were publicised was “uncalled for”.
“(It was) very high handed, very much political, and rhetorical, rather than based on legal and (the) presumption that people are not guilty (until they are found guilty).
“After all, this case has not been brought to court yet. But you have DoJ coming up with statements alluding to certain facts of the case, which I thought is very unprofessional.
“Is it because you think the elections are after Raya? It’s not very nice. That’s all we’re saying.”
DoJ, in court filings in California, is seeking to seize US$540 million (RM2.3 billion) in assets including art works, jewellery and film rights, which it said were bought using siphoned off from 1MDB.
The suit comes almost a year after its application last year to recover several luxury properties, a private jet, paintings as well as funds used in Martin Scorsese’s “The Wolf of Wall Street”, the movie produced by a company led by Najib’s stepson, Riza Aziz.
The two filings brought the total value of the assets sought by DoJ to US$1.8 billion (RM7.7 billion).
The department charged that from 2009 through 2015, more than US$4.5 billion (RM19 billion) belonging to 1MDB had been diverted by high-level officials of the fund and their associate.