Recordings Show Netanyahu Aides Rebuffed Bild Testimony Bids

Recordings aired on Israeli television Wednesday evening appeared to show police investigators repeatedly trying to schedule a short testimony from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the classified-document leak to Germany's Bild newspaper, only to be rebuffed by his office. Chief of staff Ido Norden told an investigator he did not have a second to discuss the matter, said it was irrelevant, and insisted the prime minister did not need to know about the request because he managed the schedule. Investigators received similar responses from adviser Nevo Katz. The tapes surfaced a month after Netanyahu adviser Jonatan Urich was charged with transmitting classified information with intent to harm state security over the Bild leak, and as former chief of staff Tzachi Braverman awaits an obstruction-of-justice hearing in the same affair. The Prime Minister's Office did not comment on the report.