Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and State Attorney Amit Aisman said overnight they are prepared to hold talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s defense team on a possible plea deal in his corruption trial.
Netanyahu had been scheduled to testify Monday morning, but the court canceled the hearing hours before it was set to begin, citing an “update” from his attorney, Amit Hadad.
The attorney general and state attorney issued their response after President Isaac Herzog invited the parties to hold talks aimed at reaching understandings. The move came after ynet first reported that Herzog intended to approach the sides in an effort to mediate, while effectively making clear that a pardon for Netanyahu is not currently on the table.
“The prosecution is prepared to hold discussions with the defense to formulate an appropriate plea agreement,” Baharav-Miara and Aisman said, “provided there are no preconditions for the talks and without harming the progress of the trial, as is customary. At this stage, we will not address additional issues, including the format of the talks, how they will be conducted or where they will take place.”
Herzog had proposed holding the negotiations at the President’s Residence, but Baharav-Miara and Aisman did not agree to that in their response.
Herzog’s invitation was sent last Tuesday to Baharav-Miara, Aisman and Hadad through the president’s legal adviser, Michal Tzuk. The President’s Office said the process was meant to examine whether understandings could be advanced and was only a preliminary step before Herzog considers Netanyahu’s pardon request itself.
“The parties were asked to attend promptly, willingly and in good faith,” the President’s Office said. “It was made clear to the parties that accepting the invitation does not constitute agreement or approval on their part regarding any matter in dispute between them in court.”
In the letter, titled “Invitation to hold dialogue at the President’s Residence,” Tzuk wrote that Herzog believes that before considering the use of his authority regarding Netanyahu’s request, the possibility of talks between the parties should be exhausted.
The New York Times reported last week that Herzog does not intend to grant Netanyahu a pardon at this stage and instead will try to promote a plea agreement. The President’s Office later confirmed the report, saying that an agreement between the parties would be “a proper and correct solution.”
The Times cited two senior Israeli officials described as being directly familiar with Herzog’s thinking. They said Herzog believes there are several options beyond a binary choice of pardon or no pardon, and that the president’s central role is to foster unity. As a result, they said, he does not intend to respond positively or negatively to Netanyahu’s pardon request for now and prefers to resolve the matter through negotiations.
Netanyahu submitted his pardon request in late November last year. In March, responsibility for handling the request was transferred from Justice Minister Yariv Levin to Minister Amichai Eliyahu. Levin said he made the move to prevent “attempts to delay the process for many months” by arguing that his recommendation should be disqualified due to a conflict of interest.
At the time, the Justice Ministry’s pardons department found that Netanyahu’s request did not meet the basic threshold requirements. The department’s position has not been made public, but details obtained by ynet show that it said, among other things, that Netanyahu is difficult to define as an “offender,” a basic condition for filing such a request, because his trial has not ended and he has not been convicted. It also noted that Netanyahu has not expressed remorse for acts of which he has not been convicted and has not admitted guilt.