At a late night press conference at his Jerusalem residence on Thursday night, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert responded to the partial lifting of a gag order on the new police investigation against him, and declared that if Attorney Genera Menahem Mazuz decides to press charges against him, he will step down.
Olmert is suspected of receiving bribes to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars from American Jewish philanthropist Morris Talansky over a period of years, when Olmert was mayor of Jerusalem and Minister of Industry and Trade.
At the late night press conference Olmert admitted to receiving contributions from Talansky, funds he described were election campaign donations and not bribes. Olmert vehemently denied claims that he had pocketed sums of money for his own use, and staring at the cameras declared “I am looking you straight in the eyes when I declare that at no time whatsoever did I ever take any of the money for my own personal use.”
Olmert declared that his lawyer Uri Messer was in charge of handling the funds that were donated by Talansky and said he totally trusted Messer, and was positive that he had dealt with the funds in a proper manner. Earlier in the evening Channel 10 suggested that Messer who has been questioned by police a number of times on the matter revealed incriminating information against Olmert.
On Tuesday, police said that leaks coming from the foreign media regarding the probe undermined the gag order imposed on the case. The New York Post revealed details of the probe on its website and also identified Talansky in name, all the details mentioned in the newspaper report were barred from publication in Israel until Thursday night.
No reason was given for the decision to partially lift the gag order imposed on the case, however the decision came after hours of deliberations and discussions after Police requested that the court ease the gag-order during a three hour meeting with Mazuz and State Attorney Moshe Lador.
Olmert was questioned under caution by police last Friday. Aside from his lawyer and Talansky, his former bureau chief Shula Zaken has also been questioned by police several times regarding the monetary contributions sent by Talansky. Earlier Thursday Talansky allowed the press to photograph him, but aside from wishing everyone a happy Independence Day, Talansky refused to respond to questions regarding the police investigation.05/08/08
Margot Dudkevitch
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