Israel’s attorney general and state prosecutor are considering filing an indictment against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s chief of staff Tzachi Braverman for obstruction in a case involving leaked documents to German newspaper Bild, also known as the “secret documents affair.”

The indictment is subject to a hearing, the Office of the State Attorney said in an announcement on Tuesday. If the decision is made to proceed, Braverman will be tried for fraud, breach of trust and obstruction of justice.

In what has been dubbed “the night meeting affair,” Braverman is alleged to have met with Eli Feldstein, a spokesman for military affairs in the Prime Minister’s Office, and warned him that an undercover investigation had been opened into the Bild affair.

During the alleged meeting, which according to Feldstein occurred in Felstein’s car in an underground parking lot of IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv, the chief of staff read Feldstein some names connected with the Bild affair and asked if he knew them. Feldstein answered in the negative.

“Does this have anything to do with you? Does it have anything to do with us? Because if it does, I can shut it down,” said Braverman.

The episode was related by Feldstein during a three-part interview with Omri Assenheim, host of the program “It Will be Good,” in December 2025. Feldstein is the main suspect in the Bild affair.

According to Braverman’s attorneys, Jack Chen and Yaniv Vaki, “This is an incorrect decision that extends the tremendous injustice that has already been done to Mr. Braverman. As the letter of suspicion indicates, the basis for the decision is the testimony of Mr. Feldstein.”

Describing Feldstein as a ” false witness motivated by extraneous motives,” they said it was “strange” that the State Attorney’s Office would base its decision on such an “unreliable witness.” The State Attorney, in its own indictment against Feldstein, rejected “his many unfounded versions and false claims,” they noted.

The “secret documents affair” for which Feldstein is indicted involves the passing of a classified document from Aaron Rosenfeld, an NCO in the Military Intelligence Directorate, to Feldstein. Rosenfeld was also indicted.

The document, obtained from the computer of a mid-level Hamas commander, outlined the Hamas strategy for a hostages-for-ceasefire deal. According to the document, Hamas didn’t want a deal.

The document, provided by Feldstein to Bild, became the basis of a Sept. 6, 2024, story in the German newspaper, which reported that Hamas’ goal in hostage talks was to buy time to rebuild its military capabilities, “exhaust” Israel’s military and “exert psychological pressure” on the hostages’ families, who would, in turn, pressure the Israeli government.

The document bolstered the narrative of the prime minister that only military pressure would free the hostages.

The leaked document came at an opportune time for Netanyahu, who faced increased public pressure after the bodies of six hostages were discovered in a tunnel complex in the Gaza Strip on Aug. 31, 2024. They were murdered at point-blank range by their Hamas captors.

Feldstein said the discovery of the murdered Israelis contradicted Netanyahu’s message that “military pressure brings back hostages,” showing instead the opposite, that “military pressure kills hostages.”

Netanyahu referred to the Bild story in a Sept. 8 Cabinet meeting, saying it revealed that Hamas planned “to tear us apart from within,” but that “the great majority of Israel’s citizens are not falling into this Hamas trap.”

Opponents of the prime minister’s strategy, including hostages’ families calling for an end to the war to free the captives, accused Netanyahu of purposely leaking the document to torpedo a hostage deal so he could continue to pursue his war aims.

Netanyahu’s office said the document’s release didn’t compromise the effort to free the hostages but helped it by exposing Hamas’ methods of applying psychological pressure, blaming Israel for the failure of talks “when everyone knows—as has been confirmed repeatedly by U.S. officials—that Hamas is preventing the deal.”

Meanwhile, the Information Security Department in the Military Intelligence Directorate opened an investigation to discover how the document leaked. They said the release of the document could compromise Israeli methods of intelligence collection.

The investigation led to the Oct. 27, 2024, arrest of Feldstein. On Nov. 21, 2024, he was indicted on charges of endangering national security by passing leaked military documents.