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Morris "Moshe" Talansky, reportedly known by Olmert's staff as the "Laundry Man"
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| By Israel Insider staff May 8, 2008 |
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| Olmert holds a late night press conference to protest his innocence (Flash90) |
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Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is suspected of illicitly receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars from Long Island businessman Morris (Moshe) Talansky, according to the details of an investigation currently being carried out against him, which only now can be publicly revealed in Israel.
The Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court on Thursday relaxed a sweeping media gag order that has prevented reporting of details of the probe. Olmert was questioned under caution last Friday and the gag order had been initially intended to remain in place until early next week.
But the media clamor for details, and the fact that key details were already published in the foreign press, caused an emergency meeting of judicial officials which led to the relaxation of the gag order. |
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"Citizens of Israel, I look you in the eye and I say to you, in no uncertain terms, I have never taken a bribe, nor have I unlawfully pocketed money."
PM Ehud Olmert, at a late-night press conference about the probe.
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Channel 10 TV reported that Talansky was a middleman for allegedly illegal campaign contributions, and that he readily told Israeli interrogators everything he knew about the case.
The New York Post had previously published that Olmert's personal secretary had noted frequent visits of the man she described in her diary as "The Laundry Man."
The contributions were allegedly made while Olmert was mayor of Jerusalem, before he became prime minister. Channel 2 TV reported that police do not yet know for what the money was used.
In a television statement late Thursday night, Olmert admit that he accepted campaign donations from an American businessman, but denied that they were bribes. He said he would only resign if he were indicted.
In a terse, late-night televised statement to journalists at his residence in Jerusalem, Olmert said that all funds received were transferred to a former close associate, attorney Uri Messer. "I never took bribes, I never took a penny for myself," Olmert said adding that he had "full confidence that Messer handled the money professionally and according to the law."
He also said he would not fight to stay in office if he is charged. "Even though the law does not require me to do this, I will resign from my job if the attorney general decides to issue an indictment against me," Olmert said.
Olmert said he first met Talansky, 75, from Long Island, in 1993, when he was running for Jerusalem mayor. "Mr. Talansky assisted me in raising money," Olmert said, saying that Talansky also helped him in 1998 when he ran for mayor again, and also in 1999, and 2002 in internal Likud elections. In addition, he said, he helped him cover deficits in election campaigns in which he took part.
A police source cited by the Jerusalem Post said the funds in question were "very large," and were allegedly received over an extensive period of time, "both directly and indirectly." Hundreds of thousands of dollars are believed to be involved.
Haaretz journalist Yossi Verter described the recent days with the Prime Minister:
"It's all an election finance matter," Olmert wrote to the government ministers in a lengthy series of notes he sent them at the cabinet meeting earlier this week. "The drama is because of the gag order and the urgent questioning. The headlines will disappoint in a couple of days."
"One note after another Olmert wrote, urgently, as if his life depended on these pieces of paper. One of the ministers who knows his handwriting well, from dozens of previous notes, looked them over and was astonished. The prime minister's stylized and rounded handwriting had changed in a single day into the sad handwriting of a battered, haunted man."
"It wasn't the same determined Olmert, who runs meetings with a firm hand, shouts, bangs on the table," another minister said. "He spoke with difficulty, kept swallowing, appeared completely crushed."
Verter described the meetings as like "sitting shiva" (the Jewish custom of comforting the survivors after a death) and added tha t"people who had business this week at the Prime Minister's Bureau said they felt like they had wandered into a disaster zone: doom and gloom, bowed heads, weeping secretaries incapable of focusing on their work, a feeling that it will all be over any moment now. A bad scene, one visitor to the office said."
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