Report: Netanyahu’s attorney representing 2 suspects in classified document leak case
Amit Hadad acting for PM’s former aide Yisrael Einhorn and current adviser Jonatan Urich; Haaretz says suspect Eli Feldstein being pressured to replace legal representation
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s defense attorney Amit Hadad is representing two suspects in the Prime Minister’s Office classified documents leak case, Haaretz reported Thursday, raising questions over whether the lawyer has a conflict of interest.
Hadad has begun representing Yisrael (Srulik) Einhorn, a former Netanyahu aide, after visiting him recently in Belgrade, where Einhorn has been living over the past year to work on political campaigns in Serbia, the report said.
Einhorn is facing a summons for questioning in the case upon his return to Israel. Police are seeking to question him over his alleged role as an intermediary between Eli Feldstein, who has been charged with leaking classified information to harm state security, and the German Bild newspaper.
According to Haaretz, Einhorn leaked the documents to a senior figure at Bild with whom he has a close relationship after receiving them from Feldstein. The publication of information from the documents is said to have harmed efforts to free hostages held in Gaza and exposed Israeli intelligence sources.
Information released by the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s court demonstrated that the apparent motivation behind the leak was to alleviate public pressure and criticism against Netanyahu following Hamas’s murder of six high-profile hostages days before the IDF found them in late August.
Hadad is also representing Netanyahu’s adviser Jonatan Urich who was questioned under caution by police, reportedly on suspicion of instructing Feldstein to pass the documents to Einhorn.
Police have not yet decided whether to indict Urich. Haaretz recently reported that when police investigators arrived at his home to take him for questioning, he requested a few hours’ delay due to scheduled meetings with Netanyahu, a request which the police surprisingly obliged. Hadad previously represented Urich in 2019 when he was accused of hounding a state’s witness in Netanyahu’s corruption trial.
“It is strange that one attorney is representing so many characters involved in this case,” a source familiar with the details told Haaretz.
An unnamed legal source told Haaretz that “it can’t be that the prime minister’s attorney will represent two suspects who may potentially give out information on Netanyahu,” hinting that Hadad has a conflict of interest.
Hadad is representing Netanyahu in the prime minister’s ongoing corruption trial, for which the premier has taken the stand over the past week.
The Haaretz report also said that Feldstein is being pressured to replace his current attorney, Oded Savoray, with a lawyer who is more in line with the government.
Political operatives have reportedly approached Feldstein’s family on the matter and written about it on social media, with one activist allegedly going so far as offering to pay Feldstein’s legal fees — which could reach hundreds of thousands of shekels — should he replace his representation.
Hadad was mentioned in the report as a possible replacement.
Last month, Savoray said he was hired by Feldstein’s family because the suspect’s father feared that his son might take the fall in order not to involve anybody from the Prime Minister’s Office.
The father wanted a lawyer who would represent Feldstein’s interests, “and not those of anybody else… That’s why they turned to me,” Savoray told Channel 12.
Savoray said last week that Netanyahu knew that Feldstein planned to leak the documents and that his client acted with “permission and authorization” from the Prime Minister’s Office. Netanyahu, however, is not a suspect in the case.
“There was a point in the investigation that [Feldstein] decided to stop laying on the fence for the prime minister and his office,” Savoray said in a radio interview, adding that his client “is not saying that Netanyahu ordered to give the document to the foreign press, but he did know about it. Netanyahu knew about the document and knew about the intent to give it to the foreign press.”
According to Haaretz, the pressure to replace Savoray is also because of his political affiliations. Savoray represented a group of reservists petitioning against the so-called reasonableness law, the most prominent legislation passed as part of the government’s judicial overhaul.
Savoray also represented Likud MK Moshe Saada but quit because the lawmaker supported the judicial overhaul. Another reason mentioned by Haaretz for the push to replace Savoray is that a relative of his, Moran Savoray, is representing the Hostages and Missing Families Forum in a petition against Netanyahu.
The leak case is centered around the alleged handing over of a highly classified document to Bild in September, which ostensibly detailed Hamas’s priorities and tactics in hostage negotiations with the alleged aim of turning public opinion against a deal. It later became apparent the document was written by lower-level officials in the terror group and did not necessarily reflect the leadership’s position.
Feldstein and a second unnamed suspect — an IDF non-commissioned officer in reserves — were arrested last month on suspicion of leaking the stolen classified intelligence information. The soldier is accused of leaking the military intelligence to Feldstein. Feldstein is accused of transferring classified information with the intent to harm state security, a charge that can carry a sentence of life in prison, as well as illicit possession of classified information and obstruction of justice.
The document was allegedly unlawfully removed from the IDF’s military intelligence database by the reservist who gave it to Feldstein, who then saw to it that it was transferred to Bild, though he was aware that it was obtained illicitly and that the military censorship had barred the information from publication.
