Trump claims Herzog told him Netanyahu pardon ‘on its way’; Israeli president denies it

Herzog’s office says pair never spoke, but he gave a Trump representative an explanation on ‘the stage of the process’ after the pardon request was submitted a month ago

US President Donald Trump asserted Monday that President Isaac Herzog was about to issue a pardon for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, prompting an immediate denial from Herzog’s office.

Speaking during his meeting in Florida with Netanyahu, Trump said he believed a pardon was on the way: “How can you not?” he said. “He’s a wartime prime minister who’s a hero. How do you not give a pardon?”

Trump then claimed that he “spoke to the president, and he tells me it’s on its way. You can’t do better than that, right?”

But the office of Herzog — who has been weighing granting Netanyahu a pardon in his more than five-year criminal trial since an official request was submitted a month ago — denied making any such comment to the US president.

“There has not been a conversation between President Herzog and President Trump since the pardon request was submitted,” Herzog’s office said in a statement issued just a few minutes after Trump’s comments.

It said that the Israeli president spoke several weeks ago with “a representative on behalf of President Trump, who inquired about the US president’s letter,” referring to a November letter Trump sent to Herzog formally urging him to pardon Netanyahu.

During that conversation, “an explanation was provided regarding the stage of the process in which the request currently stands, and that any decision on the matter will be made in accordance with the established procedures,” Herzog’s office added.

The statement noted that this explanation “was conveyed to President Trump’s representative, exactly as President Herzog stated publicly in Israel.”

Trump — who has faced legal troubles of his own over the years — has for months been publicly pushing for Netanyahu to be granted a full pardon in his ongoing corruption trial, in which he is charged with taking bribes, along with fraud and breach of trust in three separate cases.

Netanyahu is accused of using the power of his office to swap favors with wealthy benefactors, including a telecom company, a Hollywood producer, and a newspaper publisher.

During a speech to the Knesset in October, Trump appealed directly to Herzog to grant a pardon to Netanyahu.

“I have an idea, why don’t you give Netanyahu a pardon?” he said at the time, adding, “Who cares about cigars and champagne?” a reference to some of the items Netanyahu was infamously alleged to have received unlawfully.

Trump followed up his Knesset speech with a letter to Herzog last month, calling the case against Netanyahu a “political, unjustified prosecution,” and demanding a full pardon.

“I hereby call on you to fully pardon Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been a formidable and decisive War Time Prime Minister,” the US president wrote, “and is now leading Israel into a time of peace, which includes my continued work with key Middle East leaders to add many additional countries to the world changing Abraham Accords.”

Herzog repeatedly maintained that he could only consider such a pardon once an official request was submitted, and last month, Netanyahu’s attorneys requested a full presidential pardon in a filing that notably did not include any admission of guilt.

Speaking a day after receiving the request, Herzog said that he would handle it “in the most proper and precise way. I will consider only the good of the country and Israeli society.”

In a video statement the day his attorneys submitted the request, Netanyahu asserted that in addition to allowing him to focus his attentions on leading Israel, “an immediate end to the trial would greatly help lower the flames and promote broad reconciliation — something our country desperately needs.”

The Israel Democracy Institute think tank noted, in a recent analysis article, that “no law requires an admission of guilt as a condition for a pardon,” but also that the attorney general’s office has long directed that handling pardon requests before conviction should occur “only in rare cases.”

Opposition figures in Israel lambasted the request and called on Herzog to reject it out of hand, in particular without any admission of guilt or responsibility from Netanyahu.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.