Herzog’s office invites Netanyahu’s lawyer, AG to discuss potential plea deal

President’s legal adviser says it would be in national interest to find an ‘arrangement’ to end PM’s trial, which resumed this week after pause due to Iran war; PM wants a pardon

President Isaac Herzog’s legal adviser on Tuesday invited the attorney general and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s lawyer to the President’s Residence to begin discussions to reach “agreements” over the premier’s ongoing criminal trial, meaning a plea bargain.

Earlier this week, Herzog ruled out granting Netanyahu’s request for a pardon at this stage, with Hebrew media reporting that the president was disinclined to go against the advice of the Justice Ministry’s Pardons Department, which said that the prime minister’s request did not meet the criteria for a pardon.

Herzog’s legal adviser Michal Tzuk stated in a letter to Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, the head of Israel’s prosecution service, and Netanyahu’s lawyer Amit Hadad that an “arrangement” would be in the interest of the country, and said that the president had publicly expressed this position several times.

“You are therefore invited to come to the President’s Residence as soon as possible to establish the necessary process for holding these talks with a willing heart and with good and appropriate intentions, with both sides entering the room free of commitments and conditions,” Tzuk wrote to Baharav-Miara and Hadad.

She asked them to reply to the invitation by May 3.

Herzog has held off on granting Netanyahu a pardon despite immense pressure from US President Donald Trump, who has personally lashed out at Herzog multiple times, calling him “weak and pathetic” and demanding that he immediately pardon the prime minister.

Netanyahu’s supporters have echoed that request, insisting on Netanyahu’s innocence and saying the trial is dividing the country. Netanyahu’s opponents, meanwhile, have urged the president not to grant the premier clemency unless he admits guilt and resigns from political life.

Netanyahu is the first sitting Israeli prime minister to go on trial. He has consistently denied any wrongdoing and has claimed that the cases against him — which concern allegations that he traded political favors for gifts and favorable press coverage — are a witch hunt and a political coup attempt fabricated by his opponents.

The prime minister formally requested a pardon in November, arguing that the trial was tearing the country apart and distracting him from his duties. But he did not admit guilt, raising the question of whether he could receive a pardon while his trial was ongoing.

On Tuesday, Netanyahu testified for the first time in over two months, after a pause due to the Iran war.