Olmert waves a white flag
At the end of the day, former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had no choice but wave the white flag of surrender, not just his tainted money. His rap sheet, which includes fraud and bribery, will now include obstruction of justice owing to a plea bargain struck this week. He will plead guilty to two counts of obstruction of justice, an offense that carries the turpitude of the highest order when it comes to white collar crimes.
Despite his confessions, the plea bargain will not result in more time behind bars, thanks to State Attorney Shai Nitzan. It will result in a six-month prison sentence that will overlap with the 18-month sentence he had already received in the Holyland trial.
Those confessions are of benefit, not just because they expose his shameful conduct. Thanks to the new plea bargain, there is now zero chance that his conviction in the Talansky case will be overturned. In fact, the guilty verdict was only reinforced. And since the plea bargain resulted in an overlapping sentence, it is unlikely that he will successfully convince the Supreme Court to let another sentence overlap.
Simply put, lightning doesn't strike twice, and the eight-month sentence handed down in the Talansky trial will not overlap with any other sentence.
Olmert will probably try to enlist the help of physicians to avoid prison time. But when all the dust settles, if his tricks and ploys and foot-dragging fail to achieve anything and he enters prison for 26 months, he will have been reasonably punished. Still, one cannot ignore the fact that Olmert got a celebrity discount. The average Joe would have not received the same treatment.
The public must know that Olmert's obstruction of justice paid off, first by saving him and then by sparing him a grave punishment . This is how it unfolded:
His former bureau chief Shula Zaken helped him obstruct justice. She refused to tell the truth to Tel Aviv District Judge David Rozen and withheld information about a text message she had sent her lawyers. In that message, Zaken told them that Olmert had asked state's witness Shmuel Dechner to pay Olmert's brother, Yossi Olmert, a hefty sum of 500,000 shekels ($126,000).
Her lawyers practically begged her to mention this in her testimony, but she refused and collapsed right in front of Rozen. But Rozen did not fall for it, and sentenced Olmert to six years in prison. A majority in the Supreme Court, led by Justice Neal Hendel, clung to some unexplained reasonable doubt and reduced the sentence to 18 months. Thus, the obstruction of justice saved Olmert four and a half years.
Now Olmert will have to pay for this obstruction of justice with turpitude, albeit only with turpitude. The obstruction of justice also cost him the chance of winning the appeal in the Talansky trial. Just how many overlapping sentences can one convicted felon get? What's clear is that he can rest assured that he won't get more time because of this grave offense, which was part of his web of lies. Such an offense is punishable by five, seven or even nine years in jail.
The Supreme Court heard the appeal in the Talansky case on Tuesday. Although it has yet to hand down a decision, its general contours are clear. The man who besmirched, directly or indirectly, former State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss and his staff, as well as former Accountant General Yaron Zelekha, and then proceeded to attack the State Attorney's Office and finally threw baseless accusations at former Prime Minister Ehud Barak and had him investigated, will no longer get the opportunity to stand in front of the cameras and declare that "there were no cash-stuffed envelopes" and "I did not take bribes."
He has made two confessions. Even though they should have greater consequence, they are nevertheless important in and of themselves.
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