Former Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit cooperated in 2015 with then-Israel Bar Association (IBA) chairman Effi Nave, in order to win the nomination for attorney general despite legal hurdles, recordings published on Channel 12 on Wednesday evening showed.
The recordings of the conversations between Mandelblit and Nave were found on a disk-on-key, whose contents were leaked to Channel 12's Amit Segal.
The disk-on-key was seized as part of an investigation following the leak of a previous set of recordings of conversations between Nave and former judge Eytan Orenstein. Those recordings appeared to indicate collusion between Nave and Orenstein over the latter's appointment as Tel Aviv Regional Court Chief Justice.
The attorney-general has broad authorities, including statutory interpretation of the law for the government, representing the government in the High Court of Justice, and deciding whether or not to indict senior government officials on criminal charges.
The AG is appointed by a five-member appointment committee, which is chaired by a retired judge chosen by the Chief Justice and includes one representative each of the government, the Knesset, academia, and the Israel Bar Association. In 2015, retired judge Asher Grunis chaired the appointment committee.
The recordings showed that the IBA representative on the committee, Yechiel Katz, worked on behalf of Nave to have Mandelblit appointed. They also showed that Nave regularly updated Mandelblit about the goings-on in the committee.
According to Segal, there were at the time two central hurdles to Mandelblit's appointment. The first that he was at the time a subject of a criminal investigation into what became known as the "Harpaz Affair."
The second was that Mandelblit was the government secretary at the time and worked closely with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and this could have been seen as an impediment to immediately entering a role that required overseeing the legality of the prime minister's actions.
What was heard in the recordings?
Nave is heard saying to Mandelblit in one of the recordings, "Yechiel [Katz] is doing really thorough work [to lobby for Mandelblit] … I told him, 'Yechiel, what matters is that you convince Grunis. We have the four [committee votes] without him, but if he gives you his blessing, it kills the chances [to strike down the appointment] in the High Court."
The day before an interview with the committee, Nave is heard briefing Mandelblit that "the only thing that will likely come up is the fact that you are subordinate to the prime minister, work with him … and suddenly you will be entering a role in which the relationship may affect you." Nave tells Mandelblit to "prepare himself."
Nave also mentions briefly to Mandelblit that the justice minister at the time, Ayelet Shaked, supported his candidacy. Netanyahu was considering a "reshuffle" of the coalition at the time, to bring in the Labor Party at the expense of Shaked's Habayit Hayehudi. Nave asks Mandelblit to tell Netanyahu to "wait with the reshuffle," since Shaked's exit from the government would create "real damage" to the efforts to appoint Mandelblit as the next attorney general.
Mandelblit is heard at one point accusing the State's Attorney's Office of investigating him on the Harpaz Affair to do a character assassination and strike down his candidacy for AG.
In another recording, Nave is heard saying that he spoke to the High Court justices hearing the case against Mandelblit's candidacy and attempted to influence their ruling by warning them that his rival candidate will act to curb the justice's power.
How did the court rule?
The court eventually ruled in favor of Mandelblit and he received the appointment. He is heard in a recording thanking and praising Nave.
Mandelblit and Nave's actions were not necessarily illegal, and, unlike the Nave-Orenstein affair, are not being investigated as a potential crime.
In addition, Mandelblit, who was considered a comfortable choice for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, eventually presided over the investigations and eventual indictment of Netanyahu on charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust.
The recordings do not show what Nave's motives were in lobbying for Mandelblit. However, Nave at the time was allied with Shaked, including in voting for judicial appointments. Nave may have been acting on behalf of Shaked in order to gain her favor.
Justice Minister Yariv Levin responded to the recordings in a statement on Thursday.
"For years, we have been told that the rule of the jurists is the way to prevent corruption. We are told that turning the attorney general into the owner of the government, and turning the High Court into the ruler of the entire state, is the way to promise decent and fair decisions. For years I have argued that there is nothing more undemocratic than this. Today we see that there is nothing more false and more corrupt than this. Self-appointed gatekeepers allow themselves everything. And this is not surprising, since unlimited power and the immunity of one friend preventing the investigation of another, cannot lead to a different outcome," Levin wrote.
Levin accused the current attorney general's office of "selective enforcement, complete legal backing to one government and mass declarations of 'legal not viable' to another, wrongful discrimination, and abuse of power."
"This is the face of the 'rule of law' that the 'gatekeepers' enacted here. A rule of law that exists in third world countries – there are things that are permitted to those on the 'correct side,' and prohibited to others because they are not 'one of us.'"
The judicial system requires a deep change. Many of those who supported my initiatives in the past, and many of those who wanted to believe that they were unnecessary, demand it now loudly," Levin said, alluding to the controversial judicial reforms that he proposed in 2023.