The office of Member o Knesset Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) has responded to a report in Haaretz that during his tenure as finance minister, he asked the ministry's budget department to formulate a professional opinion on the Milchan Law, which was supposed to benefit Israeli-American businessman Arnon Milchan financially.
Milchan figures prominently in an investigation over Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's receipt of expensive gifts. A statement by Lapid's office says, "The publicity further strengthens Lapid's testimony. Here is further evidence that Lapid operated only according to the professional echelon and gave them full backing against pressure from above to advance the law." The statement added, "Again, the prime minister's associates are trying to slander, and every time it turns out that the prime minister received a million shekels and pushed the Milchan law, and Lapid did not receive a penny from anyone and did everything to stop the law."