Cops granted access to raw interview material that sparked probe of PM’s chief of staff

The Lod-Central District Court on Wednesday rejected a petition filed by journalist Omri Assenheim against his needing to hand over to police the raw content from a filmed interview that led police to open an investigation into the prime minister’s chief of staff, Tzachi Braverman.

Assenheim, of the Kan public broadcaster, had appealed against a Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court order last month that he turn over all of the footage of former Netanyahu spokesman Eli Feldstein, who is suspected of leaking classified documents to the Bild German newspaper.

In an interview with Kan in December, Feldstein said that Braverman had called him to meet in an underground parking lot in the IDF’s headquarters in Tel Aviv in September 2024, and said during that conversation that he could get the investigation against Feldstein “shut down.”

In its ruling, the higher court said that all material should be handed over except remarks that Feldstein said were off the record. Those parts are be given to the court for review.

Judge Sharon Geller rejected Assenheim’s claim of journalistic confidentiality, saying, “Absolute confidentiality is exceptional and rare in the Israeli legal system.”

“The police, as an investigative body, is required to completely plumb the investigation at hand by examining all the relevant and essential content and evidence for the subject under investigation and all the suspects in the case,” she said.

Geller noted that an indictment has already been filed against Feldstein in the Bild affair and that another probe has been launched into Braverman over their alleged meeting.

Feldstein was being investigated as a suspect in the leak of classified materials to the Bild newspaper in Germany in the summer of 2024, allegedly to sway Israeli public opinion against a hostage deal with Hamas. The German publication presented that classified document as evidence that Hamas was not interested in reaching a hostage deal with Israel.

In January, police opened an investigation into Feldstein’s claims about Braverman, who has since been questioned and released under restrictive conditions.

Braverman is suspected of interfering with an investigation, the transmission of official information by a public servant, and fraud and breach of trust.

The ruling came a day after the same court extended the restrictive release conditions on Braverman, noting that the evidence gathered during the police investigation had “substantially strengthened” the suspicions against him.

The restrictions — extended by the district court until February 24 — include barring Braverman from the Prime Minister’s Office and IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv; prohibiting him from contacting Feldstein, Netanyahu himself, and a list of other employees in the PMO; and prohibiting him from leaving the country.

Braverman was scheduled to become ambassador to the United Kingdom, but the restrictions on him leaving the country have delayed the appointment.

The investigation into Braverman stems from the broader investigation into the Bild leaked documents affair, in which Feldstein and a reservist NCO who leaked him the material have already been indicted, and in which two other senior aides to Netanyahu, Jonatan Urich and Israel Einhorn, are key suspects.

The documents purported to show that the Hamas leadership was not interested in a ceasefire and hostage release deal, and were leaked as part of an effort to buttress Netanyahu’s claim that it was not he who was holding up such an agreement.

Feldstein, Urich and Einhorn are also all implicated in the Qatargate investigation, in which they are suspected of taking money to spearhead a public relations campaign to cast Qatar in a positive light for over a year after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel, despite the Gulf state’s strong ties to the terror group, and while Feldstein and Urich were working as aides to Netanyahu.