Ministers have refused to reveal the names of civil servants who had access to files of an investigation into whether Nicola Sturgeon broke the ministerial code.
The development follows questioning in parliament by SNP MSP Fergus Ewing who has accused ministers of "continuing secrecy" surrounding the probe carried out by Irish lawyer James Hamilton.
Mr Ewing is pressing the government to elaborate why it has refused to reveal the identity of the officials given permission to access written evidence submitted to Mr Hamilton's inquiry.
He asked if they were the same civil servants "involved in a concerted campaign against Alex Salmond".
Ministers gave assurances that the probe would be independent of government when it was established following a Holyrood committee inquiry into the mishandling of complaints against the former First Minister.
It emerged a female civil servant was co opted to a secretariat set up to support Mr Hamilton's investigation and she and others were able to read the material.
In legal advice released last year, it emerged the civil servant corresponded with John Swinney, then Deputy FIrst Minister, during the investigation.
In the batch of documents Senior Counsel to the Scottish Government James Mure KC is seen raising concerns that the civil servant on the secretariat briefed Mr Swinney on Mr Hamilton's thinking ahead of the report's publication pointing out he did not know if Mr Hamilton knew of the civil servant's briefing role.
The documents also showed that senior lawyers were critical of the set up of the inquiry, casting doubt over the government's claims that the probe was fully independent.
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Mr Ewing, a close ally of the late Mr Salmond, said the situation could have meant that the government may have had influence over the probe and seek to get the investigation outcome it wanted.
The MSP for Inverness and Nairn asked in a written parliamentary question for the names of any civil servants or special advisors who had permission to read the files.
Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes responded: "Several Scottish Government officials had permissions to access the mailbox used by Mr Hamilton’s secretariat.
Mr Ewing told The Herald: "The Scottish Government continue to refuse to name the individuals who, secretly, and contrary to assurances the Scottish Government gave to the Scottish Freedom of Information Commissioner had access to the Hamilton papers.
"The Scottish Government had first assured the Freedom of Information Commissioner(FOIC) that no one - no civil servant or spad [special advisor] - had such access to the digital papers.
"That proved to have been a serious misrepresentation by the Scottish Government made as it was, to the FOIC the public servant whose job it is to make sure the Scottish Government are open and transparent and share information with the public."
He continued: "This digital file apparently contained papers of James Hamilton the Irish senior barrister who was instructed by John Swinney for the Scottish Government to carry out an independent investigation into whether the Former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon had misled Parliament.
“This latest answer further demonstrates that the Scottish Government ingrained secrecy continues even now: a very peculiar Scottish form of Omertà.... If it was honestly intended that no Scottish Government official or Spad should have had such access, there cannot by definition have been any legitimate reason why such access should be provided. It shouldn’t have been provided.
"The whole point was that the investigation was to be independent - at arms length - from the Scottish Government, but all along this was not the case as Scottish Government officials were able to see the documents forming part of the inquiry."
He added: "What did that secret access which was open to Scottish Government officials actually mean in practice? It surely meant they had access to Hamilton’s witness statements and therefore allowed the Scottish Government should it so have chosen, to use that information to try seek to obtain and secure the outcome they wished from the James Hamilton inquiry. To this day the Scottish Government have continued to cover up the truth of who this one person was and who the larger group were.
"If there is nothing to hide as Scottish Government maintain why not reveal who the officials were?..Perhaps the answer is that the people who were so entitled to view the documents on the Hamilton files were or, at least included, some of the very same people as had been working on the concerted campaign against Alex Salmond, and who, in the famous words of Lord Pentland were responsible for actions which the eminent judge opined “were tainted by apparent bias” towards the Former FM - a judgement that must surely be unprecedented in Scotland and the UK."
In his report James Hamilton ruled that Ms Sturgeon had not breached the ministerial code.
However, he said she had given “an incomplete narrative of events” this, he said, was due to “a genuine failure of recollection”, most notably concerning a meeting with Geoff Aberdein, Mr Salmond’s former chief of staff, who claims he told the then First Minister that complaints of a sexual nature had been made against Mr Salmond.
Mr Hamilton said he was “deeply frustrated” by the government’s decision to redact large parts of his report.
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “As the Deputy First Minister has set out, for business continuity purposes several Scottish Government officials had permission to access the mailbox used by Mr Hamilton’s secretariat. We are not aware that any staff accessed the mailbox during the period when information about the inquiry would have been present in mailbox. The civil servants are not named for data protection reasons.”
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