Media: Former Netanyahu lawyer warns president can’t save PM

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s former defense attorney Micah Fettman said that President Isaac Herzog cannot legally grant Netanyahu’s newly submitted presidential pardon request unless the premier first admits guilt in his ongoing corruption trial.

“A pardon is given to an offender — that’s what the law stipulates,” Fettman said, citing the Basic Law: The President, which authorizes the head of state to pardon offenders or commute sentences, The Times of Israel reports.

Fettman’s remarks came as anti-Netanyahu protesters gathered outside Herzog’s residence in Tel Aviv, urging the president to reject the request. Herzog, however, said he is awaiting a formal legal opinion before considering the matter and denied media reports that he is leaning toward advancing a conditional arrangement requiring Netanyahu to admit guilt or quit politics.

Former prime minister Naftali Bennett, the leading candidate to succeed Netanyahu, said he would support a presidential pardon if it included the premier’s retirement from political life.

המוקד: הפגנה מול בית הנשיא: תחפושת של הרצוג ו"חנינה = רפובליקת בננות" (טוביה יגלניק) pic.twitter.com/RlrKVPab9r

— חדשות המוקד (@hamoked_il) November 30, 2025

Netanyahu is charged with bribery, fraud, and breach of trust across three cases involving allegations of illicit gifts and attempts to manipulate media coverage. His trial began in May 2020 and remains far from conclusion. The prime minister denies wrongdoing, calling the charges an attempted political coup.

Despite previously insisting he would not seek a pardon if it required admitting guilt, Netanyahu on November 30 submitted a 111-page request and personal letter to Herzog that contained no admission or expression of remorse. In a video statement, he again declared the indictment illegitimate and argued that dismissing it would “promote broad reconciliation.”

Fettman noted that Israel rarely issues pardons before a verdict and pointed to the 1984 Bus 300 affair as the closest precedent — but stressed that even in that case, then-President Chaim Herzog granted pardons only after the offenders admitted guilt. “There’s no way on earth” the attorney general or state prosecution would endorse a pardon without such an admission, he said.

According to media reports, Herzog may consider a conditional pardon or plea arrangement, though his office denied the claims, saying the president had not yet begun discussions and was first seeking legal guidance.

Bennett argued that a deal requiring Netanyahu’s retirement could “rescue Israel from the chaos,” while protesters denounced the request as a threat to the rule of law.

By Vafa Guliyeva