Netanyahu seeks pardon in corruption trial from Israel’s president after getting Trump’s backing

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has submitted a request for a formal pardon amid a yearslong corruption trial, just weeks after President Donald Trump said he should be pardoned.

“Today my lawyers submitted a request for clemency to the President of the State,” Netanyahu said in a video address posted on X Sunday.

“The continuation of the trial is tearing us apart from within, provoking fierce divisions, intensifying divisions,” he said. “My personal interest was and remains to continue the process until the end, until I am fully acquitted of all charges, but the security and political realities, the national interest, require otherwise.”

Netanyahu is facing charges of fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three separate cases. Prosecutors have alleged that he exchanged regulatory favors with media owners in Israel seeking positive press coverage.

He has also been accused of accepting gifts — including cigars and champagne — in exchange for advancing the personal interests of Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan and Australian billionaire James Packer. Prosecutors say these were worth hundreds of thousands of shekels.

If convicted, he could face up to 10 years in prison for bribery and a maximum 3-year term for each count of fraud and breach of trust.

Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister and the first sitting Israeli leader to have taken the stand as a criminal defendant, has consistently denied the allegations, branding them a “witch hunt.” A verdict in the ongoing five-year trial isn’t expected until 2026 at the earliest, while Netanyahu will also have the option to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Under Israel’s Basic Law, the country’s president has the power to pardon criminals or reduce their sentence. Pardons before a court verdict are extremely rare but not unheard of in Israel. Netanyahu made no admission of guilt in seeking a pardon, and continued to deny the charges as he made the request.

A spokesperson for Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Netanyahu’s request for a pardon was “extraordinary,” carrying with it “significant implications.”

Herzog is from a different political movement than Netanyahu, and relations between the two men have occasionally been strained.

In accordance with “guidelines and procedures,” Netanyahu’s request is “currently being transferred to the Pardons Department in the Ministry of Justice which will gather the opinions of all the relevant authorities,” read the statement, without indicating when a decision might be reached.

In his video message, Netanyahu also cited Trump’s recent appeal for the trial to be cancelled, saying it would allow the two leaders to “promote more vigorously the vital interests shared by Israel and the United States in a window of time that is unlikely to return.”

Trump penned a letter to Herzog two weeks ago asking the president to grant Netanyahu a full pardon.

At the time, Herzog’s office had said that “anyone seeking a pardon must submit a request in accordance with the established procedures.”

Defense Minister Israel Katz and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir both immediately backed the proposed pardon on Sunday, with Katz citing the “complex security reality” in Israel.

Netanyahu has previously cited the war in Gaza and security concerns while seeking delays in the court proceedings.

Benny Gantz, a political rival of Netanyahu, said that the pardon request was “fake” and urged him: “Instead of fanning the flames, extinguish the fire you created within Israeli society.”

In an unrelated case, the International Criminal Court last year issued a warrant for Netanyahu’s arrest over alleged war crimes committed in Gaza.

Both Israel and the U.S. do not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC. The warrant theoretically puts Netanyahu at risk of arrest if he steps foot in an ICC member country, though the body has no police force and is reliant on international cooperation.

Israel responded furiously to the warrants, with Netanyahu’s office branding the decision “antisemitic,” rejecting the charges as “absurd and false.”