Feldstein’s lawyers decry ‘false’ claim Qatargate suspect did not work for PM’s office in lead-up to arrest

Defense attorneys representing Eli Feldstein, one of the main suspects in the Qatargate affair, say Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesman’s claim earlier this evening that Feldstein did not work for the Prime Minister’s Office in the six months before his arrest is a lie.

Feldstein was arrested and charged last year in a separate case for harming state security by leaking stolen classified intelligence information that was then published in the foreign press.

The Qatargate affair involves suspicions that Netanyahu aides, among them Feldstein, committed multiple offenses tied to their alleged work for a pro-Qatar lobbying firm, including contact with a foreign agent and a series of corruption allegations involving lobbyists and businessmen. They are suspected of taking money to spread pro-Qatari messaging to reporters in order to boost the Gulf state’s image as a mediator in hostage talks between Israel and Hamas, all while in the prime minister’s employ, a judge said earlier this month.

Omer Dostri, a spokesman for the prime minister, told Channel 12’s Meet the Press earlier that Feldstein did not earn money from Qatar while he was an employee in the Prime Minister’s Office.

Dostri said Feldstein only worked for a few months in the office, but left when he failed a security check.

“Even if Feldstein continued to brief journalists after that, that was at his own initiative and not in an official capacity,” he says.

Dostri also claims, “As someone who was present in security and cabinet discussions — I never worked with him, never saw him in a security discussion. This matter is being investigated — and we will see what comes out of it.”

Later, Feldstein’s lawyer Oded Saburai and Sion Hausman tell Channel 12 the claim that Feldstein did not act as a spokesperson for the Prime Minister’s Office in the six months before his arrest “is false and contradicted by mountains of objective evidence.”

The lawyers assert their client acted in an official capacity on behalf of the Prime Minister’s office as a spokesperson on diplomatic and security matters.