AG calls on High Court to overturn appointment of Gofman as new Mossad chief

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara accuses the appointments committee that reapproved the selection of Maj. Gen. Roman Gofman as new Mossad chief of ignoring key facts in the case, asserting that Gofman’s actions in a controversial incident from 2022 constitute a “substantial blemish” on his ethical conduct and saying that the High Court of Justice should therefore annul his appointment.

The Senior Appointments Advisory Committee reapproved Gofman’s appointment on Tuesday 3-1 after the High Court ordered the committee to hear and review new evidence and testimony that it failed to obtain when it first approved Gofman’s appointment in April.

But in her response to the committee’s decision sent to the court this morning, Baharav-Miara states that the new evidence and testimony the committee reviewed shows Gofman was aware that the IDF’s 210th Division he commanded in 2022 had used blogger Ori Elmakayes in an influence operation, and that Gofman failed to intervene on Elmakayes’s behalf after he was wrongfully arrested and indicted on espionage charges as a result of his work with Gofman’s division.

The attorney general says that the committee ignored the critical new evidence it reviewed after the court order, essentially accusing the committee majority of seeking to appoint Gofman regardless of the facts of the case.

“Even after the majority of the committee members were given an opportunity to review the examination process it conducted, they failed,” writes Baharav-Miara.

“The opinion of the committee majority ignores some of the real-time testimonies and documents, which have significant weight for understanding the matter, and includes ‘inaccuracies,’ as the committee chair said,” adds the attorney general in reference to retired Supreme Court president Asher Grunis who voted against immediately approving Gofman’s appointment and in favor of further clarifying the affair.