By Jonathan McCambridge
Three men, including loyalist activist Jamie Bryson and former Sinn Fein MLA Daithi McKay, have been cleared at Belfast Crown Court of charges relating to misconduct in public office.
Mr Bryson, 35, from Rosepark in Donaghadee, and co-accused Thomas O鈥橦ara, 41, from Lisnahunshin Road in Cullybackey, were found not guilty of conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office.
The charges had related to a Stormont committee hearing that examined the sale of the National Asset Management Agency鈥檚 (Nama) Northern Ireland assets in 2015.
Mr McKay, 43, from Loughan Road in Dunnamanagh 鈥 who was chairman of the finance committee at the time 鈥 was found not guilty of misconduct in public office.
Mr Bryson and Mr McKay said there are now questions for the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) over why the prosecution was brought.
Trial judge Gordon Kerr KC said he believed Mr Bryson had lied while giving evidence in the case, but said he was not involved in a criminal conspiracy.
The long-running Nama trial had related to Mr Bryson鈥檚 2015 appearance before the Stormont committee, chaired by Mr McKay, which was investigating the sale of Nama鈥檚 Northern Ireland assets to a US investment fund.
The criminal probe was launched after the publication of leaked Twitter messages between Mr Bryson, Mr McKay and the account of Mr O鈥橦ara, who at the time was a Sinn Fein activist in north Antrim.
Mr McKay quit as an MLA within hours of the Twitter messages being published in August 2016.
The Stormont Finance Committee inquiry was set up in 2015 amid political controversy over the multimillion-pound sale of Nama鈥檚 property portfolio.
Nama, the so-called bad bank created by the Irish government to deal with the toxic loans of bailed-out lenders during the economic crash, sold its 800 Northern Ireland-linked properties to investment fund Cerberus for 拢1.2 billion.
Giving evidence to the committee in 2015, Mr Bryson used Assembly privilege to name former DUP leader Peter Robinson as a beneficiary of the sale.
The then-first minister of Northern Ireland strongly rejected any suggestion he benefited from the deal. All other parties involved in the transaction also denied wrongdoing.
Delivering his judgment in the non-jury trial on Thursday, the judge said: 鈥淒espite his lies in court, I am sure that Mr Bryson was at all times communicating with Mr McKay.
鈥淚 am sure that the communications were designed to give Mr Bryson the best advice and guidance to maximise his chances of giving evidence.
鈥淢y analysis of the messages do not show any occasion where Mr McKay undertook to say or do anything outside his duties as chairman to ensure Mr Bryson鈥檚 evidence would be in open session.
鈥淐learing Mr Bryson, the judge said the evidence did not establish there had been a criminal conspiracy between him and Mr McKay.
He said: 鈥淚n the absence of an agreement, the conspiracy charge must fail.鈥
Turning to Mr McKay, the judge said there was 鈥渘o doubt he deliberately misled the committee to ease the way for Mr Bryson鈥檚 presentation鈥.
The judge pointed out the Assembly had its own code of conduct and said there was 鈥渘o precedent for a prosecution in these circumstances鈥.
Clearing Mr McKay, he added: 鈥淚 do not consider it my role to expand the offence.鈥
The judge said the evidence against Mr O鈥橦ara 鈥渇ell well short鈥 of anything which would convince him of his guilt.