Netanyahu attorney refutes Comptroller's report
Prime minister's lawyer says Sara Netanyahu was entitled to bottle deposits because she collected them and that purchase of lawn furniture was according to policy.
Days after the release of a state comptroller's report on spending in the official Prime Minister's Residence, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hit back at his critics.
Attorney Jacob Weinroth, appointed to represent the Netanyahu couple following the report's findings, defended Sara Netanyahu against claims of impropriety after she was accused of personally taking funds received from recycling state-funded beverage bottles. "According to the recycling law, the owner of the bottles or the person who collected them is entitled to receive the deposit; no one disputes that it was Sara Netanyahu who collected them," Channel 2 quoted Weinroth as saying.
He added that "given that the facts appearing in the Comptroller's report and Netanyahu's response are true, there was no criminal activity."
Sources involved in the case said, however, that the problem in the so-called bottle affair is rooted in part in the use of employees from the Prime Minister's Office to systematically collect bottles.
Regarding the matter of the electrician with Likud ties who was paid for work he has reportedly done on weekends and Yom Kippur, Weinroth said "there is no proof that Netanyahu knew or was involved in requests to the Tenders Committee to approve the employment of Pahima. The requests were submitted by deputy director of the PMO, Ezra Seidoff."
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The Prime Minister's Office refuted the accuracy of this part of Channel 2's report, saying that "there was no criticism language at all towards Ezra Seidoff. There is no trace of a concern about criminal activity surrounding anything related to the residence's expenditures, and there is no place for an inquiry or investigation."
Weinroth also defended the prime minister against the accusation that lawn furniture was purchased for the prime minister's residence in Jerusalem and then moved to his private residence in Caesarea. "According to regulations, the state funds all furniture used by the prime minister, and he must return it at the end of his term – which has yet to arrive," he said.
The State Comptroller report released last week said that the Netanyahu family spent excessive funds at the public's expense. For example, the funds for food doubled to half a million shekel a year. The cleaning and clothing expenses were also excessive, according to the report.
The report also said that PMO employees paid for some of Benjamin Netanyahu's personal expenses, but were not reimbursed in exchange for receipts. It also found that the electrician had been hired "under false pretenses". The Comptroller expressed concern about possible criminal activity in relation to three incidents: the bottles, the electrician, and the lawn furniture.
Prime Minister Netanyahu and Likud initially laid at least part of the blame at the feet of former superintendent Menny Naftali, who is not just locked in conflict with the prime minister and his wife, but also began to provide police testimony this week about events during the time he was employed. Naftali hit back last week, saying: "Shame on you. I am hurt and can't believe I'm in this situation. All the prime minister's employees know who I am."
