New comptroller panel debates request for tycoon to pay legal bill

Back in February the panel agreed to re-hear the issues despite the fact that the previous committee under the previous comptroller had rejected the exact same request multiple times.

By YONAH JEREMY BOB
Benjamin Netanyahu (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Benjamin Netanyahu
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
A new comptroller committee, viewed by observers as more friendly to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu than the previous panel, held on Thursday what might be the final hearing regarding his request for up to NIS 10 million of his legal fees in his public corruption trial to be funded by tycoon ally Spencer Partridge.
The comptroller committee on Thursday night asked Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit for clarification about whether he viewed Partridge as having a conflict of interest in financing Netanyahu's legal defense in light of the fact that Partridge is a fact witness, however minor, in the upcoming trial.
The committee said it will issue a decision after receiving that feedback from Mandelblit.
Back in February the panel grabbed headlines when it had agreed to re-hear the issues despite the fact that the previous committee under the previous comptroller had rejected the exact same request multiple times.
Mandelblit and State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman previously authorized Netanyahu in September 2019 to receive a NIS 2m. loan from Partridge.
The comptroller committee on Thursday night asked Mandelblit for clarification about whether he viewed Partridge as having a conflict of interest in financing Netanyahu’s legal defense in light of the fact that Partridge is a fact witness, however minor, in the upcoming trial.
The committee said it will issue a decision after receiving that feedback from Mandelblit.
But prior to that, the previous comptroller committee panel denied Netanyahu’s request for straight-up having his legal defense funded by tycoons on three separate occasions due to concerns about the prime minister’s refusal to make certain financial disclosures as well as the picture of getting money from tycoons to defend charges for receiving allegedly illegal gifts from tycoons.
The Movement for the Quality of Government in Israel has petitioned the High Court of Justice to argue that the committee was in Netanyahu’s pocket and could not retract its previous rulings against him, but to date the High Court has preferred to stay out of the dispute.
The most recent rejection of Netanyahu’s request for help from tycoons came in June 2019.
At the time, Netanyahu rapidly lashed out at the prior committee saying it was not letting him have the same rights as prior ministers who received donations to pay for their defense of public corruption cases. He also claimed that the committee had politicized the process and usurped or manufactured new authorities to block his rights which it did not legally have.
The previous committee responded almost as quickly, saying that Netanyahu was unique because he is a serving prime minister. They said that all prior cases he wanted to cite to prove he was being mistreated were related to former ministers, who resigned their posts once in legal trouble.
Once they resigned their posts, they no longer had ongoing or current conflicts of interest to receive donations, the committee said.
In other words, the committee implied that Netanyahu can get his legal bills paid for him if he resigns, but must pay if he wants to stay in office where he can help the tycoons in return for their money, and allegedly has in the past.
Part of the dispute between Netanyahu and the previous committee was the prime minister’s refusal to fully reveal his financial situation and ability to self-fund his defense.
But by July 2019, Englman, viewed as close to Netanyahu, had replaced former comptroller Joseph Shapira. Shortly after that, Englman replaced the comptroller committee as well.
Significant media coverage has shown connections between new committee members and the Likud, with some new members even resigning, but most weathering the criticism. Englman has rejected any notion that he or the committee favor Netanyahu.
The new committee said that it was not bound by the previous three rulings of the same committee because it is an administrative panel and not a court.
Further, the new committee said that circumstances have substantially changed since June 2019, because in November 2019, the indictment against Netanyahu was filed and he must now imminently pay to defend himself at trial in a case which has over 1,000 binders of evidence.
In an earlier exchange about his finances, after Netanyahu accused the previous committee of holding his legal defense hostage, the committee responded by publicizing investment links he had to tycoon and cousin Natan Milikovsky, which have raised the specter of a potential new criminal probe.
The committee also previously told the prime minister to return $300,000 to donors which he had received without the committee’s approval.