Netanyahu must petition High Court to use donations to fund bribery defense

The prime minister had wanted to accept donations from his cousin, businessman Natan Milikovsky, and businessman Spencer Partridge, with his legal costs estimated at several million shekels.

By YONAH JEREMY BOB
Updated: DECEMBER 18, 2018 04:09
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu smiles as he attends the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee at the Knesset, Israel's Parliament, in Jerusalem November 19, 2018 (photo credit: AMIR COHEN/REUTERS)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu smiles as he attends the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee at the Knesset, Israel's Parliament, in Jerusalem November 19, 2018
(photo credit: AMIR COHEN/REUTERS)
Following rejection by a state committee, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s only path of appeal against the decision forbidding accepting donations from wealthy businessmen to fund his legal defense of bribery allegations is to turn to the High Court of Justice.
A lawyer for the comptroller’s office, Yoram Rabin, explained the ruling to the Knesset State Control Committee in a hearing on Monday.
The prime minister had wanted to accept donations from his cousin, businessman Natan Milikovsky, and businessman Spencer Partridge, with his legal costs estimated at several millions shekels.
A committee appointed by State Comptroller Joseph Shapira rejected Netanyahu’s request on December 5, but the prime minister’s new legal team signaled that they would ask the committee to reconsider its decision.
Rabin’s statement resolves confusion surrounding the committee’s decision and Netanyahu’s legal team’s public statement that they might convince the committee to reconsider its ruling by providing additional information.
“In light of the combination of the circumstances surrounding the death of attorney Jacob Weinroth and the security incidents that Prime Minister Netanyahu has been involved with recently,” Netanyahu’s legal team had said on December 5, “he was unable to answer the committee’s questions at the time that was set.”
“The new team of attorneys headed by Navot Tel-Tzur has already approached the committee and clarified that in the coming days all the arguments for the request to the committee will be presented, including precedents in which permits were given to elected officials to finance their defense,” the statement continued. “We have to wait for the final decision of the committee after it hears the full arguments presented to it.”
However, Rabin said that the committee has not received any new request from the prime minister’s legal team, and in any event that there is no appeal process other than to the High Court.
The committee’s decision rejecting Netanyahu’s request had said, “As a rule, this is not the kind of issue that is justified under the circumstances of the case and is appropriate from a public perspective.”
The document said, “Legal expenses arising from a criminal investigation, which includes a suspicion of criminal acts in connection with various financiers, should not be carried out by financiers.”

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The committee hearing also included an appearance by Prime Minister’s Office Legal Adviser Shlomit Barnea-Fargo who avoided taking any clear positions on the legal funding issue or on questions about whether large gifts from friends to public officials could violate the Gifts Law (which are the allegations against Netanyahu in Case 1000.)


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