Likud activist crowdfunding for Netanyahu legal defense

A Likud activist has launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise money for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s legal defense after the State Comptroller’s Office rejected a request to allow wealthy foreign businessmen to fund his legal bills in the three corruption cases against him.

The campaign, on the Israeli crowdfunding site giveback.co.il, had raised some NIS 36,000 ($10,000) by Wednesday evening out of a target of NIS 1 million ($275,000.)

The fundraising drive was launched by Moshiko Pesel, 29, a member of the Likud Central Committee, who wrote that after Netanyahu’s request was rejected “it is our job as citizens of Israel to help fund his legal defense,” calling it “everybody’s struggle.”

The page, which blames “a concerted effort to depose” Netanyahu for his legal woes, pledged that the money would be used solely for the prime minister’s legal defense.

Last month, the State Comptroller’s Office denied Netanyahu’s request for Nathan Milikowsky, who is also his cousin, and American millionaire Spencer Partrich to cover his legal fees. In its decision, the Comptroller’s Permits Committee said it was inappropriate for non-Israeli benefactors to pay for legal defense in a criminal case relating to receiving funds from wealthy benefactors.

In two of the the cases against him, the prime minister is suspected of receiving benefits from rich benefactors in return for using his offices to advance their interests.

Meanwhile, the State Comptroller is also investigating whether Netanyahu improperly received $300,000 from Milikowsky to fund his legal defense without getting the necessary permission.

However, earlier this month State Comptroller Yosef Shapira urged his office to reconsider Netanyahu’s request and to reconvene and hear the prime minister’s arguments in person, saying the circumstances have “significantly changed” since the committee’s original decision was made, according to Hebrew media reports.

Netanyahu’s lawyers have argued that Netanyahu and his legal team at the time believed that donations from a cousin did not require the approval of the committee.

The lawyers also said the funds from Milikowsky were received between March 2017 and March 2018, before the attorney general had clarified that such donations require approval.

Over the past year, attorneys for Netanyahu have sought permission for Milikowsky and Partrich to pay up to $3 million in legal bills in the three separate criminal investigations in which police have recommended he be indicted, including a probe that centers on lavish gifts from the prime minister’s billionaire friends abroad.

Last year, both Milikowsky and Partrich were questioned by police in their investigation of Netanyahu, dubbed Case 1000, in which the prime minister and his wife are suspected of receiving some NIS 1 million ($282,000) in illicit gifts from businessmen in return for certain benefits. In his testimony, Partrich acknowledged to police that he had bought Netanyahu a number of expensive suits but said Milikowsky paid him back for them, Haaretz reported in January.

Netanyahu is being investigated in two other probes — cases 2000 and 4000 — involving potential quid pro quo deals for regulatory favors in exchange for positive media coverage. Police have recommended that he be indicted for bribery in all three cases, a charge that state prosecutors reportedly also favor in at least one of the cases.

Netanyahu has denied wrongdoing, and has accused police, media, and law enforcement of waging a witch hunt against him.

Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit is currently reviewing the cases and weighing whether to announce his conclusions before April’s elections, which the premier has called on him not to do. Media reports have indicated that he will announce his decision on a possible indictment, pending a hearing, in February.