Netanyahu’s military aide gives testimony on allegations against PM’s chief of staff

Roman Gofman, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s military secretary, gave open testimony to the police on Sunday regarding allegations that Netanyahu’s chief of staff, Tzachi Braverman, said he could quash a military investigation into the leak of a classified document to the German Bild newspaper.

Gofman was interviewed by the police’s Lahav 433 national crimes unit during the morning, Hebrew media reported. Gofman, who has been nominated by Netanyahu to be the next head of the Mossad, is not a suspect in the case.

The police reportedly believe that Braverman received the information about the military investigation during the course of his work as Netanyahu’s chief of staff, and unlawfully informed one of the subjects of investigation, Netanyahu’s media advisor Eli Feldstein, that he was being investigated.

In an interview with the Kan public broadcaster in December, Feldstein said that Braverman had called him to meet in an underground parking lot in the IDF’s headquarters in Tel Aviv in September 2024, and said during that conversation that he could get the investigation “shut down.”

Feldstein was being investigated as a suspect in the leak of classified materials to the Bild newspaper in Germany in the summer of 2024, allegedly to sway Israeli public opinion against a hostage deal with Hamas. The German publication presented that classified document as evidence that Hamas was not interested in reaching a hostage deal with Israel.

In January, police opened an investigation into Feldstein’s claims about Braverman, who has since been questioned on suspicion of obstruction of justice.

The allegations and subsequent police probe have cast doubts about the likelihood that Braverman will be able to take up his appointment to become Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom. He has also reportedly been summoned to a hearing at the Civil Service Commission, which is seeking to suspend him as chief of staff.

Last month, a court placed a gag order on the case. The order, which is valid until February 22, covers all future investigative materials and any information that could expose methods or capabilities of the Shin Bet domestic security service. The sweeping gag order was issued after police appealed a lower court ruling that had granted a more limited order.

Netanyahu has stood by Braverman, decrying the allegations against him as “one gigantic fake” last month. Netanyahu may be questioned in the probe as well, Hebrew media has reported.

The Bild affair is one of two rocking the Prime Minister’s Office. The other, the so-called Qatargate, involves accusations that the prime minister’s aides were lobbying on behalf of Qatar while in his employ.