A-G defends predecessor’s handling of Netanyahu probe

Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit on Thursday defended his predecessor, Yehuda Weinstein, against claims he dragged his feet investigating allegations of wrongdoings involving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s financing for trips abroad.

In a reply to a question from MK Yoel Hasson (Zionist Union), Mandelblit said in a letter that there was no basis to the claims Weinstein had hindered an investigation into the so-called “Bibi Tours” case, in which Netanyahu allegedly received gifts from businessmen and others to pay for trips abroad for him and his family when he was finance minister last decade.

Mandelblit said he would look into the allegations after a state comptroller report released earlier this week detailed some of the claims and said they could be criminal, almost five years after they first surfaced.

More information left out of the report was also being probed.

Hasson in his letter accused Weinsetin of covering up the case and dragging his feet to protect Netanyahu.

Mandelblit responded that Hasson’s accusation was harsh and that Weinstein had done everything according to the letter of the law.

Released Tuesday, the state comptroller’s report found that some of Netanyahu’s trips abroad when he was finance minister between 2003 and 2005 were funded by private donors in possible conflicts of interest.

The report said Netanyahu did not properly report those contributions and that travel expenses were “double-billed” to both the state and private bodies. The Netanyahu family has also been accused of “lack of clarity” over its accounting and of using flight miles accrued by the state for private use.

The Prime Minister’s Office on Tuesday said the report indicated a “mountain was made out of a molehill” in the affair, and charged that the state comptroller was attempting to retroactively apply regulations on ministerial travel that were formulated in 2008.

Netanyahu denied the allegations of criminal conduct and said he was “convinced” Mandelblit would not find reason to launch an investigation.

Mandelblit said Tuesday that he would hold an immediate inquiry into the findings of the state comptroller’s report.

The allegations “must be inspected without delay, in a direct and professional manner,” the attorney general said. “We won’t deviate from professional standards.”

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.