Netanyahu slams charges against key aide as ‘baseless and unfounded’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday slammed Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara’s decision to press criminal charges against a top aide, questioning its timing and calling the move “baseless and unfounded.”

On Sunday, Baharav-Miara announced charges would be filed, pending a hearing, against Jonatan Urich, a key Netanyahu adviser, related to allegations that he and another aide leaked classified documents to the press with the intent of harming national security.

Urich is also suspected of destroying evidence in the case. The charges would be issued following a court hearing.

Baharav-Miara, who is overseeing Netanyahu’s ongoing trial for corruption, has feuded with the prime minister on numerous occasions, and his allies are seeking to oust her.

The Attorney General’s Office announced the charges against Urich, as well as others against a prominent ally of far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, shortly after the High Court of Justice greenlit a government panel set to ratify her dismissal.

In a post on X castigating the attorney general’s decision, Netanyahu suggested the timing of the charges was suspect.

“The disgraceful announcement by the attorney general of her intention to try Jonatan Urich, especially at this particular time, is a miserable decision that raises serious concerns,” he wrote.

“I am familiar with the details, and I state clearly and unequivocally: There was no harm to state security. Jonatan did not harm state security.”

Urich and Eli Feldstein, another former aide to Netanyahu, are suspected of illegally obtaining a highly classified document outlining Hamas’s tactics and leaking it to Bild, a German tabloid. The leak, an alleged effort to sway public opinion in favor of how Netanyahu was handling the Gaza war, was published by Bild in September 2024, days after six Israeli hostages were found murdered in a Hamas tunnel in Gaza.

According to a draft of the indictment against Urich obtained by the Kan public broadcaster, he is accused of transmitting classified material with the intent of harming state security, as well as possessing classified material and destroying evidence.

Urich and Feldstein, state prosecutors wrote in the draft, leaked the document to Bild “at a time when they were not authorized to do so, while aware that publishing the material was subject to the [Israeli] military censor, with the intent of harming state security.” The indictment added that, “unfortunately, they foresaw that outcome as a near-certain possibility.”

Feldstein was charged in the case in November 2024. This week’s draft indictment says that one day after the arrest of Feldstein and another suspect in the case, Ari Rosenfeld, Urich switched cellphones in an attempt to shield the material on the old phone from being used as evidence.

Feldstein and Urich were also arrested earlier this year over a separate scandal known as Qatargate, in which they were accused of doing public relations for Qatar while working for the government, including by spreading pro-Qatar messaging via Israeli government channels.

Following the announcement of the potential charges against Urich, Netanyahu’s opponents called for the prime minister to be held accountable. Opposition Leader Yair Lapid posted on X that Netanyahu must explain “what and when he knew about the documents affair, and why, at the moment he learned of it, he did not act to separate whoever was involved from [matters regarding] the security of Israel, the holy of holies.”

The charges against Urich came shortly after Baharav-Miara announced potential charges against Kobi Yaakobi, the Prison Service chief and a close ally of Ben Gvir, the national security minister. Yaakobi is accused of illegally informing another senior officer that he was being investigated for covering up Jewish nationalist violence.

Ben Gvir derided the charges against Yaakobi as “political” and “criminal,” adding that the prisons chief had his “full backing” and would remain in his position.

Ben Gvir posted on X that the charges were “an attempt to threaten officers who carry out the policy of the elected leaders, in order to politicize the law enforcement system and maintain the rule of the deep state.”

Yaakobi has indicated that he would resign if indicted.

The attorney general announced both potential indictments as the Netanyahu government’s months-long effort to oust her accelerated. On Monday, a new five-member ministerial committee, formed last month, was set to hold a hearing on whether to fire her. Members of the coalition say that the attorney general has obstructed their ability to govern; she has accused them of acting “above the law.”

In particular, the attorney general and prime minister have clashed over his firing of former Shin Bet director Ronen Bar, whose agency was investigating Qatargate. On Sunday, the High Court approved a compromise between the prime minister and attorney general whereby he will advance the appointment of Bar’s successor in two months, to allow time for the Qatargate probe to be completed.