Police investigating whether recording of Yair Netanyahu was lawful

In the 2015 recording released by Channel 2, Yair Netanyahu was recorded boasting to the son of a gas tycoon: “My dad arranged for your dad a $20 billion windfall and you can’t spot me NIS 400?”

By DANIEL K. EISENBUD
Updated: JANUARY 16, 2018 05:01
Yair Netanyahu (photo credit: AVSHALOM SASSONI/MAARIV)
Yair Netanyahu
(photo credit: AVSHALOM SASSONI/MAARIV)
One week after a surreptitious recording was released of the prime minister’s son asking a friend to lend him money for a strip club – after boasting about a lucrative gas deal their fathers had been involved in – police are investigating whether the wiretap was lawful.
In the 2015 recording released by Channel 2, Yair Netanyahu was recorded telling Ori Maimon, the son of gas tycoon Kobi Maimon: “My dad arranged for your dad a $20 billion windfall and you can’t spot me NIS 400?”
The recording resulted in a firestorm surrounding the embattled prime minister, who, prior to his visit to India, stated that its release was part of a campaign to “trample his son with unbridled, malicious aggression.”
Modi’in Ezrahi, the security firm that employed the guard who allegedly made the tape, filed a complaint with the police against the former employee on Sunday for illegally recording the prime minister’s son. In the complaint, an attorney for the security firm suggested that the wire used to record him had been unlawful and done without permission.
Police have acknowledged that an investigation has been opened but offered no further details.
In response to the aired story, Yair Netanyahu stated: “Tonight I watched a shameful and sensationalist news story that presented unlawful and secret recordings from a conversation that took place two-and-a-half years ago.... In an evening conversation [conducted] under the influence of alcohol, I said ridiculous things about women and other foolish things that were better left unsaid.”
He went on to say in his statement: “I never paid any attention to the gas policy [of Israel] and had no clue about any of the details regarding it.”
The Netanyahu family called the airing of the recording “persecution, bloodshed and shaming.” It stated that the recording had been “edited in a manipulative [way] and carried out in a shameful and illegal manner by a driver employed by the office of the prime minister.”