The attorneys representing Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu and some of the Israeli public are optimistic after judges at the Tel Aviv District Court on Tuesday said they "expect the investigative authorities to clarify them and do everything necessary to prevent future leaks," but they have no reason to be.
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Over the past several years, since the investigations against Netanyahu began, Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit, who has the authority to probe the leaks from the investigation and the trial, has proven that he is protecting the leakers.
In September 2020, for example, High Court of Justice judges discussed a petition by the attorney representing Shaul Elovitch, who is one of the accused in Case 4,000, that demanded a prove into the serious leaks of material in the case to the media. It was none other than President of the Supreme Court Justice Esther Hayut who took a hard line against Mendelblit's policy of ignoring leaks that would be illegal if they turned out to come from a public officials.
Hayut said the leaks hurt the legal process taking place in court: "The damage is being done to the system as a whole. Isn't it time to do something?" she asked.
Hayut didn't hold back when it came to Mendelblit himself, either. "There is a problem with the decision not to do anything. If you were to come and say, we had carried out a preliminary probe, something that points to some attempt, before saying that there was no point in investigating … we have trouble with this." Later, Hayut turned to a representative of the attorney general and said, "This will come back on you."
We won't keep you in suspense. Despite the harsh comments, Mendelblit was largely unmoved and avoided any investigation of the leaks. This wasn't the first time he has effectively "allowed" leaks in the Netanyahu cases. Back in October 2017, Mendelblit reached out to then-Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan and asked him to probe leaks from the Netanyahu investigations, but the leaks continued to flow like water.
Two years ago, Netanyahu's defense attorneys reached out to Mendelblit and asked him to conduct polygraph tests for members of the prosecution they suspected might be behind the leaks. Again, Mendelblit wasn't too interested in doing so.
Given all this, the "shock" lead prosecutor Liat Ben-Ari expressed over the leaks on Tuesday, as well as her suggestion that Netanyahu's lawyers take the matter to the attorney general, are an insult to the intelligence of the judges, the lawyers, and the public. Ben-Ari knows that there is almost zero chance that the leaker is not part of the State Attorney's Office, but she isn't worried. She also knows Mendelblit's record of not probing leaks, and it's clear that the ceaseless media noise – which goes by biased, twisted leaks of partial information – is a smokescreen that allows him to avoid being held accountable to the public for filing lazy, haphazard indictments that are full of holes. Mendelblit knows you don't switch leakers mid-trial.
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