Miriam Adelson with her late husband, billionaire businessman Sheldon Adelson, May 18, 2014. (AP/Invision/Scott Roth)
Leaked transcripts of police testimony given by Miriam Adelson in connection with a graft probe of the Netanyahus reveal alleged demands for positive coverage in one of Israel’s primary daily papers.
By World Israel News Staff
Police transcripts from a graft probe of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara revealed new details regarding alleged attempts to manipulate media coverage to portray them in a positive light.
The transcripts consisted of comments by Israel Hayom publisher Miriam Adelson, who is Israel’s wealthiest woman and has been a supporter of Netanyahu in the past. Adelson reportedly told police that the prime minister and his wife complained about how they were portrayed in the paper, according to a Channel 12 report.
In the leaked transcripts, Adelson claimed that Sara Netanyahu “told me once that if Iran obtains nuclear weapons and Israel will be wiped out that it will be my fault because I did not protect Bibi,” Arutz Sheva reported, quoting Channel 12.
Adelson’s testimony was given in connection with Case 2000, which is based on allegations that Netanyahu attempted to negotiate an agreement with the publisher of the Yediot Aharonot newspaper through which he would receive favorable news coverage in exchange for the closure of Israel Hayom, Yediot Aharonot’s primary competitor.
The Prime Minister’s Office blasted the Channel 12 report, referring to the transcripts as “more skewed, gossipy, tabloid leaks, published on the eve of elections in order to harm Prime Minister Netanyahu and Likud,” Times of Israel reported.
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