The attorneys of Hadad Roth Shenhar & Co. Law Firm may have a conflict of interest in representing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his corruption trial, failed state’s witness against the prime minister, Shlomo Filber, and Filber’s alleged harassers, the State Attorney’s Office told the Israel Bar Association’s Ethics Committee on Thursday.
While on June 6 the Ethics Committee had determined that there was no conflict of interest for attorneys Amit Hadad, Noa Milstein, and Israel Wolnerman to represent both Netanyahu and Filber, the State Attorney's Office argued that the representation of Likud 2019 election campaign manager Ofer Golan and Likud strategic adviser Yonatan Orich required reexamination of this position.
The Bar committee had dismissed concerns about conflict of interest for Hadad's team to represent Filber in the administrative proceedings of the cancelation of his state witness agreement largely because his testimony had already ended, but following Tuesday's indictment the case was ongoing against Golan and Orich for intimidating the former Communication Ministry director.
Filber has alleged that he was subject to intensely violent physical abuse prior that influenced his testimony against Netanyahu, and the State Attorney's Office noted that filed requested on the matter by the Hadad team were of interested to the Netanyahu trial.
"All the proceedings in which lawyers Haddad, Milstein and Wolnerman seek to represent are interrelated and interconnected. They are all related to the reliability of the testimony given by Filber as a state witness," said the State Attorney. "Mr. Netanyahu, as the defendant, has an interest in damaging the credibility of Mr. Filber's version. Mr. Filber has an interest in proving – even if only during the hearing proceedings in his case – that he did not act in violation of the state witness agreement and did not act to damage the credibility of his testimony. The interests of Mr. Orich and Mr. Golan in dismissing the criminal charge regarding actions allegedly carried out by them to intimidate Mr. Filber during the stages of providing the said testimony and in which case his status is that of a complainant."
Filber was key wittness in Case 4000
Filber was a key witness in the Case 4000 media bribery allegations against Netanyahu, but prosecutors declared Filber in violation of his immunity deal in April. Filer had said that the Bezeq-YES merger that Filber had tried to back-channel, allegedly to benefit Bezeq owner Shaul Elovitch in return for positive coverage for Netanyahu, was unethical but not criminal.
Orich, Golan, and former Likud spokesperson Israel Einhorn were indicted following a 2019 investigation into allegations that they had allegedly sent a mobile device with an external speaker to Filber’s home, and played a recording in which they accused the witness of lying.
“What did they promise you, Momo [Filber]?” said the recording. “The Left is using you to take down the Likud.”
Golan and Orich said in a statement that they had been subject to six years of legal torture despite Filber informing the prosecutor's officer that he had not been intimidated and was not interested in proceedings.
“If they want war, they will get war," said Golan and Orich. "We’ll meet in court.”
Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.