Report: Sara Netanyahu told police Milchan asked her to speak to aide
'I didn't initiate things,' Mrs. Netanyahu reportedly tells investigators concerning conversations with the billionaire businessman's personal assistant, according to Channel Ten News, 'Milchan asked me to organize with Hadas the way in which the gifts he wanted to give us would be delivered.'
"My conversations with Hadas Klein took place after I spoke to Milchan, and he asked me to organize with Hadas the way in which the gifts he wanted to give us (would be delivered)," Mrs. Netanyahu reportedly told investigators.
"I didn't initiate things," Mrs. Netanyahu is said to have claimed. "Milchan would tell me he wanted to give us wine bottles. The amounts claimed to have been brought to us are completely farfetched. We're being falsely accused of things that didn't happen."
"Sara would ask for boxes of six or 12 bottles of champagne," she said. "Bibi (Netanyahu) would ask for cigars and also know about the quantities of champagne his wife received. The driver of the company would travel especially to Jerusalem to supply the cigars and champagnes."
The prime minister himself was questioned on Sunday for four hours on the illict gifts affair. He summed up with investigation with a short comment on Facebook, saying: "Tonight I'm still completely confident that there will be nothing, because there was nothing!"
By virtue of the friendship between the two businessmen and the Netanyahu couple, Klein developed a close relationship with the prime minister and his wife. Her testimony, therefore, is considered key by the police.
Klein provided the investigators with examples of unusual requests. For instance, when a leak needed repairing at the prime minister's house, she said Sara called demanding that a construction supervisor hired by the two billionaires come and direct PMO staff on how to handle the leak.
"It was a difficult conversation. Sara yelled at me," she said. "(Sara) Netanyahu wanted the construction supervisor who works with Packer and Milchan to come to advise the professional staff of the Prime Minister's Office about the leak.
"I did not approve of it, and then she shouted that I and Milchan humiliate her and Bibi by not approving things that are supposedly permitted to them.
"After a few hours, Netanyahu called himself, said that it was not right what they (Packer and Milchan) were doing to (Sara), that they need to understand what she is going through because of the media, and that they checked it with a legal consultant and 'it is all allowed.'"
Inquired about Sara's behavior and mental state, Klein said that "Sara was afraid of wire-tapping, and whenever she asked for things, she asked to speak only by landline or to meet face to face," adding Mrs. Netanyahu "shouted at me several times about the gifts."
As for the question of payment and its distribution, Klein said that Milchan set a cost distribution for gifts between him and Packer.
