In two days of riveting testimony, Klein, 57 — poised, expressive and confident, and draped in a trim frame — came across as exactly what she is: a top executive aide who witnessed extraordinary events. About halfway through Wednesday’s recitation, her testimony took a turn that could have been taken from a mob court. Klein, assistant to Arnon Milchan, the Hollywood producer and close friend of Netanyahu for the past thirty years, described her efforts to conceal the identity of the beneficiary of her purchases from “Cookie,” the owner of a tony. cigar boutique in the upscale Herzliya suburb of Tel Aviv. “Cookie—that’s his name,” he wanted to know who was enjoying the Cuban cigars he bought from him to the tune of about $27,328 a year. “I was paying for everything on my personal credit card because I was trying to shield Netanyahu. I didn’t want to put it on Arnon’s credit card to shield him. Cookie never gave us a discount, but he did give us gifts of Dominican cigars… I accepted and asked Arnon about it and he said, “Sure, why not?” And of course we have nothing left. We also delivered the gifts to Mr. Netanyahu.” Cookie stepped on her. “Cookie told me that only a very small group of people in the country consume this length and diameter cigar, so who is it?” Two Monte Christo cigars cost $630, she recalls. Netanyahu enjoyed dipping them in Cointreau before smoking him, he said. But Klein brought more than her memories. A meticulous archivist, she provided investigators and the court with all receipts, invoices and bank transfers related to these purchases and more. Her text messages about the supplies and their disposition were mercilessly projected on a screen in Judge Rivka Feldman-Freidman’s small courtroom. Klein was the central cog in a fully-fledged “well-organized apparatus” of Netanyahu’s illegal demands for goods from wealthy “friends” and the distribution of the resulting “gifts,” which Israeli prosecutors believe constitute bribery. Like Cassidy Hutchinson, Klein witnessed Netanyahu’s most intimate behavior. Like Hutchinson, he was ignored by those in power. And like Hutchinson, she called her testimony an act of patriotism. “I am fulfilling my obligations as a citizen of this country,” she told reporters in the corridor, surrounded by police bodyguards. “I was asked to testify and that’s what I’m doing. I’m doing what would make my parents proud.” During her testimony, which also included unflattering portrayals of Milchan, Klein worried about the possibility of losing her job. Klein is unlike previous named witnesses in Netanyahu’s trial, in which he faces charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust in three separate criminal cases that include, in one way or another, allegations that he abused his position for personal gain . Both Nir Hefetz, once head of Netanyahu’s fearsome communications shop, and Shlomo Filber, the former director-general of Israel’s communications ministry under Netanyahu, were riveting but reluctant witnesses who testified for the state only as part of the deals they hope will they will keep them. from criminal prosecution. Hefetz testified that “in everything to do with the media, [Netanyahu] he is much more than a control freak… Netanyahu spends at least as much of his time in the media as he does on security issues.” Echoing Netanyahu, Filber called the trial a “witch hunt” and unenthusiastically described receiving direct orders from the prime minister, who asked for regulations to be “relaxed” on Saul Elowitz, a partner who led Israel’s largest communications group in number of hundreds of millions of dollars. “The cigars were for Netanyahu.” Klein, by contrast, testified voluntarily, even with what appeared to be relief, and is not suspected of any crime. She described Netanyahu’s repeated calls to her cell phone, claiming that he had received the authorization of “legal counsel” for the flow of gifts he requested to be provided to his wife. “You don’t understand,” the prime minister told his friend’s aide. “He only gets upset because the media is slaughtering. Give her everything she wants. Everything is allowed, I checked. Don’t spill her blood like the media is doing.” Klein described a vast staff apparatus through which the Netanyahus appropriated an unlimited flow of luxury goods from Milchan, who grumbled about it, telling Klein “we have no choice. There is no other way with them,” and Packer, which he described as Netanyahu’s vulnerable group. Milchan, she said, “enjoyed the proximity to power. He liked being able to say he was friends with the prime minister’, but was a disgruntled participant in the scheme which involved hiding cases of pink Dom Perignon champagne in coolers. In March 2016, Klein recalled, when she returned home from a private trip to Cuba — her 50th birthday celebration — a furious Netanyahu reportedly complained that she had only procured Cohiba 54 cigars for him and not his favorite, the Cohiba 56es. “You couldn’t get them anywhere,” he said. “They just didn’t exist.” The Netanyahus spoke to her in code, referring to cigars as “leaves” and champagne as “roses,” but were also direct to the point about other demands, Klein claimed. He said Sara Netanyahu’s request for a specific gold ring and necklace from a trendy Tel Aviv jeweler was relayed to Klein after a conference call in which Milchan, who is expected to testify later in the trial, secured express authorization from the prime minister. Klein’s testimony was full of details and pearls of fascination. Unlike Netanyahu, he described Yair Lapid, Israel’s current caretaker prime minister—Netanyahu’s opponent in the upcoming 2022 election—refusing to deliver a bouquet sent by Milchan when he was appointed finance minister in 2013. When the well-connected Milchan forgot once an expensive set of headphones at Lapid’s house, “Arnon told me to just tell him to leave them there. Yair called and said, “No way. Send the driver to get it.” He reminisced about the time Hugh Jackman reportedly met with Netanyahu, which became yet another opportunity for the prime minister to blow off some cigars. Judge Moshe Baram, a member of the three-judge panel hearing the case, asked Klein how she knew “the cigars weren’t for the actor?” Klein replied, “because I was there. The cigars were for Netanyahu.”
