Netanyahu allies said to give testimony in graft case as PM grilled by police

Two top political allies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave testimony Friday in a corruption investigation involving the premier, Israeli television reported.

According to Hadashot TV news, Likud ministers Yariv Levin and Ze’ev Elkin were summoned to police fraud headquarters to speak with investigators at the same time Netanyahu was questioned for the 12th time.

It was the second time the two have provided testimony in the so-called Case 2000, the network said.

The case involves a suspected illicit quid pro quo deal between Netanyahu and Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper publisher Arnon Mozes that would have seen the prime minister weaken a rival daily, the Sheldon Adelson-backed Israel Hayom, in return for more favorable coverage from Yedioth.

Elkin and Levin are key political allies of Netanyahu and both have previously served as coalition chairman, whose job is to help shepherd legislation through the Knesset and enforce coalition discipline.

Levin was coalition chairman in 2014 when a bill that aimed to curbed free dailies such as Israel Hayom was proposed in the Knesset and cleared in a preliminary vote. Netanyahu publicly opposed the bill at the time and earlier this year said he disbanded the last government over the draft law, triggering fresh elections.

In addition to Case 2000, Hebrew media reports said Netanyahu was also questioned in Case 1000, the so-called “gifts scandal,” in which he is suspected of “systematically” demanding benefits worth about NIS 1 million ($282,000) from billionaire benefactors, including Arnon Milchan and Australian resort owner James Packer, in exchange for favors.

Police have recommended he be indicted in both cases.

It wasn’t immediately clear if police also asked Netanyahu about a third affair known as Case 4000, in which he is suspected of trading favors for favorable media coverage.

After the interrogation, his office put out a statement saying he had cooperated and calling the investigations unfounded.

“Now, after the 12th interrogation, it’s entirely clear that the investigations of the prime minister are not only meatless — they’re boneless,” the statement said. “[As in previous sessions] this time, too, the prime minister responded to all of the questions he was asked with full confidence, fully aware that nothing happened and therefore nothing will happen.”

Netanyahu has vehemently denied wrongdoing in all of the cases, insisting the gifts were given by friends and were not bribes, and that he never intended to act on his conversations with Mozes.

The prime minister has also insisted that all his regulatory decisions affecting Bezeq telecommunications in Case 4000 were in keeping with the recommendations of the Communications Ministry’s professional echelons.

Netanyahu was last questioned in August in a four-hour interrogation that focused on Case 4000, amid media reports that police were leaning toward recommending a bribery indictment against him in the case.

Netanyahu’s wife Sara and eldest son Yair are also suspects in that investigation.

Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, who will make the final decision whether to indict the prime minister, reportedly intends to examine all three cases at the same time — which will be possible only after he receives the state attorney’s recommendations based on the final police reports.

That process puts the likely date of any final word on whether a trial may be in Netanyahu’s future in late 2019, possibly after the next Knesset elections. Those elections are currently slated for November 2019, but may be held earlier.

In addition to the premier’s own legal woes, his wife Sara was indicted in June for alleged misuse of some $100,000 in state funds.

She has denied wrongdoing in the case, whose first hearing will be Sunday.

According to Hadashot news, lawyers Yaakov Weinroth and Amit Hadad are expected to quit Sara Netanyahu’s defense team amid differences with another attorney of the prime minister’s wife over whether to pursue a plea deal with prosecutors.

Weinroth is a long-time Netanyahu family lawyer.