Talansky says can't recall transactions to Olmert's confidant

American businessman Morris Talanksy returned to court Monday for a fourth successive day of his grueling cross examination at the hands of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's legal team.

Talanksy is the State Prosecutor's Office's key witness in the ongoing investigation against Olmert for allegedly receiving illicit funds.

His cross examination, as was his testimony, are part of the pre-trail proceedings in the case, intended to determine whether or not the prime minister will face future criminal charges.

Olmert's legal team chose to focus on Talansky's relationship with attorney Uri Messer, formerly one of Olmert's closest confidants; who was deposed in the case himself.

The defense confronted Talansky with additional contradictions between his police questioning court testimony in regards to the money he allegedly gave to Olmert through Messer.

When asked about funds given to Messer so the latter could purchase an apartment in Jerusalem, Talansky said he had no recollection of such an incident.

When confronted with the bank statement detailing the transfer of $100,000 to that effect, Talansky replied he was not familiar with the documentation.

The missing proxy

When asked by the defense if he ever told the police he believed Messer should be sent to jail, Talansky's memory seemed to fail him once more: If Messer took money without his permission, he said, he should be jailed.

"What do you mean 'if?" insisted attorney Navot Tel-Zur, "did he or didn’t he?" Talansky then reiterated that he had no idea. When asked if it was possible for Messer to access the funds without power of attorney, Talansky – again – stated he did not recall.

Talansky in court on Monday (Photo: Tess Sheplen, Jini)

Olmert's legal team then confronted the American businessman with yet another video of his police investigation; which clearly showed him stunned at information indicating Messer has access to his account. Talansky claimed he had no prior knowledge about Messer's ability to access his bank account.

The defense then entered into evidence a document signed by Talansky himself asking the bank to give Messer 100k for the purpose of buying an apartment. The fax ID tag indicated it had come from Talansky's office in New York.

Talansky remained adamant about never seeing the document before, State Prosecutor Moshe Lador then asked to state for the record that that the documentation in question had not been made available to the police.

"I will not have you sit on the stand and offer nothing more than innuendos, this is your signature!" Tel-Zur berated the witness, who seemed unfazed, saying he had no recollection of ever signing over such a large amount of money to Messer.

The best intentions

The defense continued to confront Talansky with bank records, financial transactions and various proxies – all of which he had trouble recalling.

Attorney Tel-Zur wondered aloud how such a complex financial transaction could have slipped from the witness's mind, and asked him why – as a US citizen – he would choose to use Israeli banks for his foreign transactions, to which Talansky said he was planning to immigrate to Israel and set up his banking here.

Olmert demands investigation into leaks

As for the continuing leaks in the case, Talansky's attorney Jacques Chen, said Monday that contrary to media reports, his client "did not crack on the stand."

Olmert's Communications Director, Amir Dan called the leaks "scandalous," adding that they prove that "the State Prosecutor's Office and the police's version of events are crumbling in court. The better we do, the more leaks there are."

The leaks stirred up the hearing as well, as Attorney Tel-Zur – for the defense – called them borderline obstruction of justice; State Prosecutor Lador, on the other hand, said that while very disconcerting, there was no reason to believe the leaks emanated form either the State Prosecutor's Office or the Police Department.

In a letter to Attorney General Menachem Mazuz on Monday, Olmert's legal team demanded he launch an investigation into the excessive leaking of information to the press, which culminated in the publishing of pages upon pages of investigation transcripts from Olmert's questionings.