Police say drop Herzog graft probe, citing lack of evidence

Police are set to advise the attorney general to close a probe of opposition chief Isaac Herzog, citing a lack of tangible evidence against the Labor Party leader, Channel 2 reported Monday.

Investigators are to advise Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit to shut down the four-month-long probe into suspected illegal financial contributions during the 2013 Labor Party primary campaign.

A police official said last month that there did not appear to be enough evidence against the party leader to warrant a trial, Channel 10 reported at the time.

The suspicions surfaced in late March and hinge on direct payments made by donors to members of Herzog’s leadership campaign. According to media reports, police have acquired invoices that show Herzog may have known about the allegedly illicit transactions.

Concerns centered on funding connected to a nonprofit organization used by Herzog supporters to manage a negative campaign against rival Shelly Yachimovich, Channel 2 reported at the time.

Among other things, the case involved the director general of a nursing agency who allegedly invested tens of thousands of shekels over and above the official campaign budget to fund the negative campaign.

Herzog rejected the accusations, welcoming the investigation and calling the suspicions the product of “delusional political muckraking” promoted by the rival Likud party and “frustrated activists.”

He repeatedly maintained that he was “calm” and said “it’s good that these things are being examined.”

In a June 2014 report, former state comptroller Yosef Shapira determined that Herzog had exceeded the limit on expenses allowed in the Labor Party leadership primaries against Yachimovich, but that he had not broken the law. Accepting Herzog’s explanation that an “innocent accounting mistake” had been made, Shapira decided against any financial sanction against him.