Cops seize phones from relatives of PM’s former aide amid probe of Sara Netanyahu

Police investigators in the Lahav 433 unit confiscated phones belonging to the offspring of Hanni Bleiweiss, a late aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu amid a probe into allegations against the premier’s wife, Hebrew-language news sites report.

Following a Channel 12 investigative report aired last month, the police are examining allegations that Sara Netanyahu sought to intimidate a witness in her husband’s criminal trial and have protesters harass justice officials hostile to her family.

The TV report’s findings rely heavily on phone correspondence between Bleiweiss and the prime minister’s wife. Bleiweiss died of cancer in March 2023.

After obtaining a warrant, the police seized the phones in her children’s possession on the hunch that one of them may belong to the late aide, but law enforcement now surmises that none of the devices contain the evidence substantiating the expose’s allegations.

Police suspect that the family’s attorney Yaron Forer is in possession of the phone, Ynet reports. Forer declines to confirm or deny the police’s seizure of the other phones.

“Since the investigation is in progress and due to concerns about obstruction, I cannot confirm or deny anything,” he tells Channel 12.

Several Hebrew media outlets reported last week that Bleiweiss’s three children were questioned over suspected obstruction of justice after they refused to hand over her cellphone to police, claiming that they did not know its whereabouts.

As per the Channel 12 segment, Sara Netanyahu allegedly instructed Bleiweiss to send activists from her husband’s Likud party to hurl obscenities at their neighbors, the parents of a fallen military pilot, who were active in demonstrations against the premier.

She also is accused of ordering Bleiweiss to have Likud activists publish verbal attacks against Hadas Klein, a key witness in one of the criminal cases against the prime minister, and to demonstrate outside her house.