At the end of 7 days on the witness stand, Hadas Klein, the assistant to billionaires Arnon Milchen and James Packer, is portrayed as a credible, decisive witness who tries to pinpoint her answers and does not succumb to the manipulations of the cross-examination.
Klein provided an inside look at the gift delivery line as she defined it for the Netanyahu couple and insisted that former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu knew about the gift transfer, including the champagne delivered to his wife Sarah. She also testified that Milchen enjoys his closeness to Netanyahu and the status of someone who can remove Netanyahu from any meeting at the push of a button.
However, the cross-examination of Adv. Amit Hadad, Netanyahu’s defense attorney, revealed that although this is a “witness from the dreams” in terms of the prosecution, her testimony is limited as to the exact extent of the cigars and champagne delivered to the Netanyahu couple. Truth about the part that passed through all the champagnes bought.In the case of cigars, Klein insists that the vast majority were bought for Netanyahu.
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■ Hadas Klein: “Sometimes Milchen has an eyeball that the Netanyahu couple will already be leaving”
At the last hearing, on the eve of the court recess, Advocate Haddad attacked the amounts the prosecution chose to state in the indictment. In fact, he kept the heavy guns at the last minute before the parties dispersed for a month and a half, and managed to crack slightly the amount of gifts Netanyahu is accused of.
“Little” refers to the amount of NIS 184,000 out of NIS 690,000 attributed to Netanyahu. Adv. Haddad has at least another 4 days left for the cross-examination, and he will continue to try to break down the amounts in order to minimize the scope of the gifts.
NIS 184,000 for champagne: How much of it did Sarah Netanyahu get?
Netanyahu is accused that while serving as prime minister, he received gifts from his billionaire friends Packer and Milchen in the amount of about NIS 690,000, but did not refrain from interfering in Milchen’s affairs and assisting him.
This amount includes NIS 184,000 in which champagnes were purchased by Milchen for Sarah Netanyahu. The prosecution reached this amount after calculating 65% of all champagnes bought between 2011-2016 by Milchen. Why 65%? Because that’s what Klein estimated in her police interrogation. There is no evidence beyond Klein’s assessment. No one did a real-time recording, so neither did the researchers have a way to verify the evaluation.
Advocate Haddad revealed the fact that at this point, the indictment relies on assessment only, and that Klein, in advance, already during the investigation, clarified this. He showed how police investigators pressured her to submit an assessment. Klein found it difficult to assess, naturally. For the benefit of the Milchen family for hospitality purposes, but most of the bottles were bought for Sarah Netanyahu.
“You know it’s not math. I do not want to commit to anything. Really, I’m afraid of it,” Klein told the police investigator. But when the investigators insisted, she estimated that it was 65%, when she initially mentioned 70%, and in one investigation she also said 60%. “I am afraid of inaccuracy in this matter. I do not want you to say later ‘you said and it is not’,” she added.
As mentioned, no one knows what the exact true scope is. There is no way to restore it today, and even in 2016 it was not possible. Criminal law requires proof at the highest level, “beyond a reasonable doubt,” and therefore it is of great significance that we rely here on assessment. Even if it is a credible witness, with the highest ability to appreciate, as the one who was the one who carried out the transfer of the gifts.
“Who can speculate about 5 years?”, Advocate Haddad argued passionately, and the judges also seemed impressed with his claim. , In 2022, she has no ability to assess this, and Judge Moshe Baram wondered how she could have estimated how many champagnes were transferred, but meetings did not. “Without her testimony we are in a fog regarding the division?” Clarified that this is indeed the only evidence of the use made of the quantities of champagne purchased by Milchen.
But this success of the defense will not prevent the court from determining at the end of the day that large and significant quantities of those champagnes were transferred to Sarah Netanyahu, at her request. Even if the judges find it difficult to determine the amount as stated in the indictment. The extent of the gifts, the more Netanyahu is convicted, may affect the sentence.
As for cigars, these constitute a significant part of the total amount and stand at NIS 267,000 from Milchen and NIS 145,000 from Packer. Klein is adamant that the vast majority of cigars were bought for Netanyahu. “All the cigars were purchased for Netanyahu. In closed packages. Sharp and smooth,” Klein replied decisively about Adv. Haddad’s attempt to claim that the cigars were also bought for hospitality purposes.
Another argument of Adv. Haddad was circumstantial. He presented invoices according to which a huge quantity of water bottles was purchased – 4,000 bottles, most of them half a liter, in a period of two and a half months. According to him, this figure shows that all the drinks bought at the Milchen house were intended for his own and his family’s personal needs and for hospitality, in which he sought to comment on the extent of the use of champagne.
Klein rejected the claim. According to her, it is not possible to compare the consumption of water bottles with champagne. “It has nothing to do with it. I do not find it relevant,” she said. Judge Shaham wondered about the thesis and remarked that Klein did not add if there was room to consider it.
The claim of reliance on the advice of a lawyer
Netanyahu’s main line of defense, from the beginning, was that he consulted with his late lawyer, Yaakov Weinroth, who died in the middle of the investigation. The police managed to collect testimony from Adv. According to Attorney Weinroth during the interrogation, he told Netanyahu that if the gifts were given “by virtue of your status as a friend and not as a public figure, you do not have to report it.” He mentioned bottles of wine, cigarettes and meals. Consumables, everything except an apartment, that is, Netanyahu was aware of the difficulty in receiving the gifts.
On the face of it, it appears that the reliance claim does not meet the rules set by the Supreme Court. The defense requires that the consultant present all the facts, with the desired option being to consult with a competent authority. Netanyahu will be required to explain why he turned to a private lawyer and not to the legal adviser of the Prime Minister’s Office, Adv. Shlomit Barnea-Fargo.
The witnesses who will testify after Klein will be interesting and will complete the picture: Jonathan Hasson, who was the driver of the two billion, will be able to shed light on the amount of shipments of champagne; Two Cossacks, Packer’s house mother, will refer to purchases made by Packer; And of course the testimony of Milchen that is expected to testify later.
*** Presumption of innocence: It should be emphasized that Benjamin Netanyahu is only a defendant, has not been convicted of an offense, and has the presumption of innocence.