Senior Detective Admits Key Netanyahu Case Searches Were Done Without a Warrant

A senior police witness in Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption trial, Eli Levy, came under intense cross-examination on Sunday and acknowledged that he carried out sensitive investigative steps without a judicial warrant. Levy, a senior officer in the Israel Police’s Lahav 433 fraud unit and a central investigator in the so-called Thousand Cases, was pressed by defense lawyer Amit Hadad over multiple alleged procedural violations.

Levy admitted he had compiled dozens of emails related to the case without a warrant, saying, “As I described last time, I asked to gather, to produce, and to collect all the emails on the matter under discussion.” When asked whether he had obtained a warrant, he conceded, “Maybe I should have done it, and I did not.” He also confirmed that he assembled a binder labeled “Walla sensitive material” and handed it physically to the prosecution in August 2017, after which it “disappeared.”

The hearing also focused on documents that were allegedly marked after the fact and on an internal report that carried two different dates, 8.11 and 9.11. The judges questioned Levy about what he had been searching for in the case against the prime minister without a warrant. Levy replied, “An investigation is not searching, I am checking,” prompting a sharp follow-up from the judge who asked what exactly he was looking for.

According to the defense, the testimony supports its argument that Case 4000 was built on a “contaminated” investigation, with police opening what they said was an initial case in order to listen in and search for material on other cases without proper authorization. The defense says that if the court concludes investigators operated without a lawful basis, evidence derived from those searches could be thrown out. During the session, attorney Lior Tirosh repeatedly interrupted the questioning, angering the defense.