Nicola Sturgeon is facing calls to resign after new documents raised further questions about her involvement in the Alex Salmond saga.
The government has published emails showing it continued a legal fight with Mr Salmond despite its lawyers advising it was likely to lose.
Further evidence from two other witnesses has also called into question Ms Sturgeon's version of events.
Ms Sturgeon is to face a Holyrood inquiry into the affair on Wednesday.
Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said there was "no longer any doubt that Nicola Sturgeon lied to the Scottish Parliament and broke the ministerial code on numerous counts."
He added: "No first minister can be allowed to mislead the Scottish people and continue in office, especially when they have tried to cover up the truth and abused the power of their office in the process.
"The weight of the evidence is overwhelming. Nicola Sturgeon must resign."
The party said it would be submitting a motion of no confidence in the first minister to the Scottish Parliament.
Labour MSP Jackie Baillie said the new documents showed that the government's handling of harassment complaints against Mr Salmond had been "indefensible".
Ms Sturgeon has previously denied breaching the ministerial code - the rules setting out how government ministers are expected to behave - and has said she is "relishing" the opportunity to put her side of the story forward.
She has also dismissed Mr Salmond's claims that people close to her had plotted against him as untrue, saying there was no evidence to back up the allegations and accusing her predecessor of creating an "alternative reality".
A raft of new documents published by the government on Tuesday evening included email advice it had received warning that it was likely to lose a judicial review of its handling of the complaints against Mr Salmond.
Emails show a senior lawyer was "very concerned indeed" about the case in October 2018, with the government's counsel urging it to admit defeat by 6 December.
But it did not do so until January 2019, when it had to pay Mr Salmond's legal fees of more than £500,000 after admitting its investigation into the allegations had been unlawful.
This was because the civil servant tasked with investigating the complaints had already been in contact with the complainers.
Senior lawyer Roddy Dunlop QC said on 31 October that this "presents a very real problem indeed", saying that it could appear that the investigating officer was "not eligible".
Relations with the external counsel worsened after a series of problems with bringing forward documents to the civil court, with the lawyers writing on 19 December that they had suffered "extreme professional embarrassment" and that the case was becoming "unstatable".
By 28 December the lawyers had threatened to resign from the case, and the government conceded defeat days later.
Mr Salmond was later cleared of 13 charges of sexual assault against a total of nine women after a separate criminal trial at the High Court in Edinburgh in March of last year.
'Less optimistic'
The Scottish government had refused to publish the legal advice it had received until opposition parties pushed for a vote on no confidence in Deputy First Minister John Swinney.
Mr Swinney said the papers showed that legal advice was "optimistic" in the first instance, but that it "became gradually but progressively less optimistic over time".
And he said the government had taken the "right and proper" approach by conceding "within a matter of days" of being told the case was no longer winnable.
Meanwhile, the committee has also published submissions from Duncan Hamilton - a former SNP MSP and lawyer for Mr Salmond - and Kevin Pringle, a former SNP communications director.
Mr Salmond had cited both men as backing up his claims about his meetings with Ms Sturgeon, including allegations the name of one of the complainers was passed to Mr Salmond's former chief of staff in a breach of confidence.
Both said they agreed this had happened - despite Ms Sturgeon telling MSPs that "to the very best of my knowledge I do not think that happened".
Ms Sturgeon has also maintained that she only learned of the complaints against Mr Salmond at a meeting at her home on 2 April 2018 - despite accepting she had met his former chief of staff, Geoff Aberdein, at her Holyrood office on 29 March.
Mr Pringle and Mr Hamilton said they had taken part in a conference call with Mr Aberdein ahead of the 29 March meeting, and said he was clear that "the purpose of the meeting was to discuss the two complaints".
Mr Hamilton was present at the meeting on 2 April, and said that "when we arrived, everyone in the room knew exactly why we were there - no introduction to the subject was needed and no one was in any doubt what we were there to discuss".
The former MSP also insisted that Ms Sturgeon had offered to assist Mr Salmond in seeking mediation with the complainers saying she had told him that "if it comes to it, I will intervene".
However Ms Sturgeon told MSPs in January 2019 that "I was always clear that I had no role in the process - I did not seek to intervene in it at any stage".
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiQWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmJiYy5jby51ay9uZXdzL3VrLXNjb3RsYW5kLXNjb3RsYW5kLXBvbGl0aWNzLTU2MjU5MDU20gFFaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYmJjLmNvLnVrL25ld3MvYW1wL3VrLXNjb3RsYW5kLXNjb3RsYW5kLXBvbGl0aWNzLTU2MjU5MDU2?oc=5
2021-03-02 18:49:33Z
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