Prime ministerial hopeful Gideon Sa’ar declined repeated requests on Sunday and Monday to comment on the allegations against his American advisers in the Lincoln Project who are being accused of covering up the pedophilia of the project’s co-founder and pocketing millions raised by their political action committee.
Last month, Sa’ar hired Steve Schmidt, Stuart Stevens, Rick Wilson and Reed Galen of the Lincoln Project, which was formed in late 2019 by Republicans and former Republicans who aimed to prevent US President Donald Trump’s reelection and to defeat all pro-Trump Republicans in close races running for reelection in the Senate.
There had been speculation at the time that the Lincoln Project’s advisers would help Sa’ar defeat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with negative ads as they did with Trump.
Schmidt quit his role at the Lincoln Project after it was revealed that co-founder John Weaver has been accused by more than 20 young men of sexual harassment.
The Associated Press and other outlets reported that of some $90 million raised by the PAC, more than $50m. ended up going to firms controlled by the Lincoln Project’s founders.
A senior Likud campaign source declined to comment, only saying: “We don’t spend time thinking about Gideon. Gideon and [Yamina leader Naftali] Bennett can only form a government that will make [Yesh Atid leader Yair] Lapid the prime minister, so their supporters are quickly coming to Likud for a real right-wing government.”
But Netanyahu’s son Yair retweeted articles about the Lincoln Project three times over the last few days.
“Can someone tell Gideon Sa’ar?” he wrote while retweeting a Fox News article that said the Lincoln Project’s leaders were made aware of at least 10 sexual-harassment claims against Weaver last June, including by two Lincoln Project employees. The article said the PAC’s leaders who now work for Sa’ar ignored the harassment allegations.
Yair Netanyahu also retweeted former Jerusalem Post columnist Caroline Glick, who wrote: “The Lincoln Project is finished in the US after it was found that its heads hid the pedophilia of one of their partners. But not to worry. It is rising in Israel, thanks to Gideon Sa’ar.”
Sa’ar is expected to address the Lincoln Project scandal for the first time on Tuesday in a VIP briefing in English to the Tel Aviv International Salon, which is co-sponsored by the Post. He will be interviewed at the online event by Post diplomatic correspondent Lahav Harkov.