Bersatu's deputy strategist Wan Saiful Wan Jan has accused Umno of attempting to divert attention over the Cambridge Analytica (CA) controversy.
"They certainly are trying hard to manipulate the issue. Perhaps they are already well trained," he added in a statement.
Wan Saiful said Umno chose to put its trust in the statement of the country representative of a company mired in scandal.
He was referring to SCL Group Southeast Asia chief Azrin Zizal dismissing his former boss and Bersatu deputy president Mukhriz Mahathir's denial of involvement with Cambridge Analytica as a lie.
"Mukhriz said CA worked for BN. This again is not true... The 2013 election advice for Kedah was provided to Mukhriz personally.
"At no time has CA or its parent SCL Group ever worked for or been paid by BN or any part of the government of Malaysia," he had claimed.
Mukhriz, on the other hand, accused Azrin of lying instead. Azrin was formerly Mukhriz's aide when the latter was deputy international trade and industry minister.
Contradicting own company
Meanwhile, Wan Saiful pointed out that Azrin's statement on neither CA nor SCL working for BN or the Malaysian government appeared to contradict his own firm.
"It is as if the country rep is accusing himself of lying. He contradicted his own company. After all, it is CA who stated on their own website that 'CA supported Barisan Nasional...'," he said.
"Umno operatives prefer to believe in a denial statement from a company accused of manipulating elections worldwide using data obtained without consent, whose leadership has been caught discussing bribery and sex as part of their business model.
"This clearly shows the type of people preferred by Umno.
"Obviously birds of a feather flock together. This is the same government who initially denied RM2.6 billion in a personal bank account before finally relenting and calling it a donation.
"This is the same government who says the rest of the world is wrong about 1MDB, and has declared that anything different from their official account is fake news," he added.
Wan Saiful also noted that there is still no assurance from Umno that it would not manipulate the coming general election.
Cambridge Analytica has been accused of abusing personal user data mined from social media companies for smear campaigns and manipulating elections.
When asked by Malaysiakini if SCL Group or Cambridge Analytica was engaged by any political party for the upcoming general election, Azrin declined to comment.
