Arnon Milchan brought expensive gifts for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and inquired about the status of his US visa, the businessman said during police investigation and confirmed it during the second day of his remote testimony for the Likud leader’s Case 1000 trial from a Brighton courthouse on Monday.
In one incident recounted from police investigation transcripts, Milchan arrived at the Prime Minister’s Balfour residence with gifts of champagne and cigars and asked if there were any new developments with his visa. Netanyahu reportedly called his former chief of staff Ari Harrow and asked him to find out. Under Case 1000, Netanyahu allegedly helped Milchan with his visa issues in return for gifts.
Milchan appealed to the whole world including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for help with his US visa troubles, the businessman recalled during his second day of remote testimony for the Likud leader’s Case 1000 trial from a Brighton courthouse on Monday.
Milchan said that he had also contacted former Israeli Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer and US Ambassador Dan Shapiro for help when he was forced to wait months for an American visa. He had met with then-secretary of State John Kerry, who said that he could not help him.
Milchan thought the relationship was legally unimpeachable
Milchan said that the gifts that he gave to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu didn’t influence their friendship and that before the police investigation, there were no issues with their relationship as everything was understood as legally unimpeachable.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seen at the District Court in Jerusalem to as he arrives to listen to the testimony of businessman Arnon Milchan’s on the first day of his testimony for Netanyahu’s Case 1000 corruption trial on June 25, 2023. (credit: OREN BEN HAKOON/FLASH90)When asked what he thought would happen if he declined to give Netanyahu gifts, he said that he never wanted to tell him no, and he always said yes because they were friends. The prosecution noted that Milchan had told investigators that he had said that maybe he would be invited less to the prime minister’s Balfour residence, but defense attorney Amit Haddad argued that such a comment and the very line of questioning was speculative.
Milchan detailed on Sunday how he had given expensive gifts to the Netanyahu family, such as champagne, cigars and shirts. Though the different gifts were accompanied by code names, Milchan said that he didn’t think that there would be legal issues. He said that some of the gifts like champagne and cigars created more relaxed environments for peace talks.
The businessman explained that he was close friends with Netanyahu, “like brothers.” He said that he had given the politician shirts so he would look more like a prime minister, and had given his personal assistants such as Hadas Klein a free hand to give the Netanyahu family what they needed. They were regular deliveries, sometimes made by Milchan himself, sometimes by aides.
The prosecution read out Milchan’s comments to the police investigators, in which the businessman asked the officer to tell Netanyahu that he still considered him a friend and that he couldn’t lie during the interrogation.
The prosecution read out Milchan’s comments to the police investigators, in which the businessman asked the officer to tell Netanyahu that he still considered him a friend and that he couldn’t lie during the interrogation.
Milchan gave his testimony through Zoom in a UK courthouse after he had claimed that he was too ill to travel to Israel. Milchan continued his cheeky behavior on Monday, loudly testing the microphone as a joke just before the beginning of the hearing. When asked how he was feeling, he hesitantly said that he was “okay.”
Sara Netanyahu was present at the Brighton courthouse. At the beginning of the hearing, Milchan mocked how he had been told not to look at the prime minister’s wife. On Sunday she had been told not to stare at the witness and influence him.
Netanyahu is accused in the “gifts affair” of breach of trust. In return for the gifts, the prime minister is alleged to have aided Milchan by advancing a tax exemption law that would benefit him, as well as lobbying the United States for a visa for the businessman.
Following a Thursday leak about a collapsing bribery charge for Case 4000, the court ruled on Monday that it would release a summary of the judge chamber meeting with the prosecution and defense. The prosecution had issued a request to the court on Sunday calling for the meetings to be made public to prevent misinformation that could influence the proceedings.
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