PM’s chief of staff barred from PMO for 15 days following police interrogation

The police interrogation of Tzachi Braverman, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s chief of staff, has wrapped up after 13 hours, according to Hebrew media reports.

The questioning reportedly included a face-to-face confrontation with Eli Feldstein, a former spokesman to Netanyahu who is a central figure in the ongoing scandals.

Braverman’s lawyer, Jack Chen, tells Hebrew media outlets that his client was released under conditions that include a ban on contacting Netanyahu or working in the office as well as being barred from leaving the country.

“He answered all the investigators’ questions, and denied every invented version of events put forward by the defendant [Feldstein],” says Chen in the statement. “We are confident that at the conclusion of the investigation, the competent authorities will announce that there is no truth to the claim made by” Feldstein.

According to reports, Braverman — who has been tapped as the next ambassador to the UK — has been barred from leaving the country for 30 days, from contacting anyone involved in the investigation for 30 days, and from entering the Prime Minister’s Office for 15 days.

In a TV interview last month, Feldstein alleged that Braverman got wind of the secret investigation into Feldstein’s leak to Bild of classified information months before it was publicized, and had assured Feldstein then that he’d be able to quash the probe.