Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Monday denied a report that he froze Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s pardon request after the prime minister failed to respond to a request to enter a dialogue on the matter.
Herzog invited Netanyahu to a discussion about a month ago. Israel’s Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara responded to the invitation, but Netanyahu didn’t, Kan News reported on Sunday.
Once Netanyahu’s testimony in his corruption trial is completed, something that is expected soon, a request for a pardon will become “redundant,” Kan News said.
Herzog has come under pressure to grant a pardon from U.S. President Donald Trump.
On March 5, Trump said of Herzog, “I think the people of Israel should really shame him. He’s disgraceful for not giving it,” referring to a pardon.
Herzog “promised me five times that he would give Bibi a pardon,” Trump said, adding that he would refuse to meet with the Israeli president until the pardon was granted.
Herzog’s office pushed back against Trump’s comments the same day, saying Israel “is a sovereign state governed by the rule of law. ... [T]he president will examine the request according to the law, the good of the country and according to his conscience, without any influence from external or internal pressures of any kind.”
On Feb. 12, Trump said that the Israeli president “should be ashamed of himself,” adding that Herzog had been holding the issue over Netanyahu “for a year” and should stop using it as leverage.
Before that, on Oct. 13 of last year, while addressing the Knesset, Trump called on Herzog to grant a pardon. Trump followed that up with a letter to the Israeli president on Nov. 12.
