An Israeli news station aired an audio recording Monday of what it said was Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s son drunkenly bragging outside a strip club in 2015.
In the recording broadcast by Channel 2 News, Yair Netanyahu tells the son of an Israeli gas tycoon that the prime minister advanced a controversial gas deal in parliament that benefited his father.
Yair and his friends are also heard talking about strippers and how much money they spent.
Netanyahu’s son and his friends were accompanied by a state-funded bodyguard responsible for providing security as they entertained themselves. One of Yair’s entourage jokes that the guard, who was privy to some of the banter, would have to be killed if he left his job.
Yair has drawn media criticism for living a life of privilege at the taxpayers’ expense and for crude social media posts.
The audio was released amid a police investigation into corruption allegations surrounding the Israeli leader.
The station relayed a statement from the Netanyahu family calling the recordings part of a witch hunt against the Prime Minister.
Yair Netanyahu later issued an apology saying that the remarks did not represent the values he was raised on and that they were made under the influence of alcohol.