A-G backs decision to investigate Fifth Dimension
Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit on Monday defended acting State Attorney Dan Eldad’s decision last week to open a full criminal probe into the case of a company once led by Blue and White leader Benny Gantz, known as the Fifth Dimension Affair.
Mandelblit, for the first time, also explained his thinking behind the timing of key decisions he made regarding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s indictment.
Last week, Eldad surprised many by opening a full criminal probe into the affair despite only having been exposed to the evidentiary materials involved for two weeks.
Eldad publicized a letter Monday night explaining why he had issued a decision to open a criminal investigation into the Fifth Dimension before the March 2 election date.
Eldad did not address the impact that his decision could have on Gantz’s electoral prospects by criminally probing his former company and associates, acting as if the obstacle is merely a technical requirement strictly related to a candidate for office.
Eldad also said he merely adopted the prevailing opinion of the state prosecution lawyers dealing with the case for a file that had been sitting without real movement.
Since Eldad’s decision to open the probe, many on the Left and some media commentators have said Eldad jumped the gun to harm Gantz before the March 2 election. (Gantz is not a suspect, but he was in charge of Fifth Dimension until it went bankrupt.)
Eldad is already suspected by the Left because his appointment was rammed through by Acting Justice Minister Amir Ohana over the objections of Mandelblit, and many said a new state attorney would usually take months to study such a complex, high-profile case.
Ironically, though Mandelblit opposed Eldad’s appointment, saying he was unfit for the post, the attorney-general on Monday said he supported Eldad’s decision regarding the Fifth Dimension Affair as not being impacted by politics.
According to Mandelblit, it was true that he might not have opened the criminal probe as fast as Eldad. But Eldad received approval for opening the probe before the decision was announced, he said, and part of the basis for the decision was that Gantz was cleared as not being a suspect.
Mandelblit also dismissed any suggestion that the timing of his decisions in indicting Netanyahu were political to hurt the prime minister in the two recent elections and the impending third one.
The initial indictment decision in February 2019 was planned before early elections were announced by Netanyahu, he said.
Furthermore, the final indictment decision on November 21 was delayed until Gantz no longer had a mandate to form a government, so that no one could attack the decision as being pro-Gantz, Mandelblit said.
The January 28 date on which Netanyahu’s indictment was filed in court was determined by the prime minister, he said.
Netanyahu had requested immunity, which delayed the indictment being filed on November 21, Mandelblit said.
Moreover, Netanyahu decided that January 28 would be the day he withdrew his immunity request, which led to the indictment being filed that day, he said.
The attorney-general also took swipes at media personality Boaz Golan and at Ohana for violating gag orders.
Golan read portions of the Ashkenazi-Mandelblit transcripts which are under gag order out-loud at a “Leumiada” conference, while Ohana violated a gag order on details related to Nir Hefetz, a key state’s witness in the public corruption cases against Netanyahu. Ohana has also called for ignoring Mandelblit’s decisions or even court decisions in some instances, though he has sometimes walked back some of his more provocative comments.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday Ohana, speaking at the same conference, slammed former state attorney Moshe Lador and any other critics of Eldad within the state prosecution office.
“Who asked them? Tell me, is this someone’s private courtyard?...A person who has been in the state prosecution for almost 30 years and recently at the senior level...this is someone who I brought from the outside?...You know what bothers them? That he isn’t from the click, that he isn’t from the insider club. But this is not a private courtyard. We are talking about the arena of public service,” said Ohana.
Eldad’s letter was a response to accusations by The Guardian of Israeli Democracy NGO that Eldad had rushed the decision to harm Gantz politically in order to please Acting Justice Minister Amir Ohana who appointed him to the role over Mandelblit’s objections that he was unfit.