Israeli PM's confidant suspected of bribery: police

JERUSALEM - A confidant of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is suspected of attempting to bribe a judge in return for closing a corruption case against Netanyahu's wife, the police said Tuesday. 
Nir Hefetz, also a former spokesman of Netanyahu, is suspected of offering a retired judge, Hila Gerstel, the position of the attorney general if she would drop a corruption case against Netanyahu's wife Sara. 
The police confirmed the details without naming the suspects, who were identified by local media earlier in the day. 
According to the police, the incident took place in 2015, when Gerstel was the Ombudsman of the State Prosecutor's Office and a major candidate for the attorney general position. 
"A senior public servant was approached with a proposal to help promote her appointment to the position of attorney general, allegedly in exchange for a future promise by the candidate regarding her future decision in a certain criminal case," the police said in a statement. 
"This rapprochement to the candidate did not succeed," the police added. 
Gerstel reportedly rejected outright the offer proposed to her by a mutual friend of her and Hefetz. 
Gerstel did not report the alleged bribe attempt to the police but she shared it with a colleague Esther Hayut, who was then a justice on the Supreme Court and now is the President of the Supreme Court. 
Both Gerstel and Hayut are expected to be questioned by the police, local media reported. 
Hefetz, who served as Netanyahu's spokesman between 2014 and 2017, denied the allegations, according to Hadashot TV news. 
Netanyahu also released a response statement denying the existence of the deal. 
"Hefetz never made this absurd offer in front of the prime minister and his wife. He was never asked to make such an offer, and we cannot believe Hefetz even considered such a thing," the statement read. 
Earlier in the day, a court remanded Hefetz in custody until Thursday. 
The suspicions were the latest development in a corruption affair, dubbed by the police as "case 4000," which involves Shaul Elovitch, the owner of Bezeq, Israel's largest telecom company, and Shlomo Filber, who was the director of the Communication Ministry under Netanyahu. 
The suspects, all close associates of Netanyahu, were first arrested on Sunday. 
They are suspected of promoting a deal to give Netanyahu and his wife favorable coverage in Walla, a news site controlled by Bezeq, in return for the promotion of regulations worth hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars to the telecom company. 
Netanyahu, who was the Communications Minister until 2017, is currently not a suspect in this affair, according to the police, but local media widely reported that he is expected to be questioned in the recent days. 
The new developments come less than a week after the police said there was sufficient evidence to indict Netanyahu on charges of corruption. 
According to the police, Netanyahu and his family received goods, including jewelry, cigars, and Champaign, worth about one million shekels (282,800 dollars) from Israeli businessman and Hollywood tycoon Arnon Milchan and Australian businessman James Packer. 
In return, Netanyahu allegedly helped Milchan to protect his investments in the Israeli media, including Channel 10 TV. 
In another case, dubbed as "case 2000," Netanyahu allegedly received bribes from Arnon Mozes, the publisher of Yedioth Aharonoth, one of Israel's largest newspapers, in return for positive coverage in the newspaper. Enditem