US President Donald Trump has renewed his pressure campaign on Israeli President Isaac Herzog to grant a full pardon to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust across three separate corruption cases that have been ongoing since 2020 in what legal experts and political observers are describing as a direct and unprecedented American intervention in the domestic legal affairs of another country, designed to protect a man who stands accused of serious crimes against his own people and of committing war crimes against Palestinians.
Trump dismissed the corruption charges against Netanyahu as nothing more than wine and cigars and called the trial a witch hunt, urging Herzog to spare Netanyahu from prosecution and declaring that Herzog would become a national hero if he grants the pardon. Trump justified his intervention by claiming that Netanyahu’s court appearances were a distraction from the ongoing US-Israeli war on Iran. “Every day I talk to Bibi about the war. I want him to focus on the war and not on the court case. I want the only pressure on Bibi to be the fighting against Iran,” Trump said, adding that Herzog should give Netanyahu the pardon today. Al JazeeraWBAA
The audacity of Trump’s intervention cannot be overstated. A sitting US president is openly demanding that a foreign country’s legal system be suspended to protect his political ally — a man facing criminal prosecution for bribery and corruption — using an active war that the United States itself launched as justification. It is a demand that places the personal legal interests of Benjamin Netanyahu above the rule of law, above Israeli sovereignty, and above the principle that no leader, no matter how powerful, should be above accountability.
Netanyahu submitted a formal request for a pardon to Herzog in November, arguing that cancelling the trial would help alleviate Israel’s divisions and free him to attend to crucial affairs of state. He has refused to admit any wrongdoing or express remorse, two key conditions for receiving a pardon under Israeli law. His trial has been repeatedly disrupted through delay tactics, with Netanyahu and his lawyers working systematically to shorten or cancel hearings throughout the proceedings.
Herzog, for his part, has decided not to grant a pardon immediately. Instead he has invited Netanyahu’s lawyers, the attorney general, and the state prosecutor to meet and launch negotiations over a settlement in Netanyahu’s case, saying he will not make a decision on the pardon until possible plea deal negotiations are exhausted. Herzog’s office made clear that the president will act solely in accordance with Israeli law, guided by his conscience, and in the best interests of the state of Israel, without any influence from external or internal pressures of any kind a statement widely understood as a direct and firm response to Trump’s interference.
Israeli legal experts have warned that if Herzog grants the pardon under the current circumstances, it could be challenged before the Supreme Court on the grounds that it was the product of foreign political coercion rather than a legitimate legal process. In other words, Trump’s very public pressure campaign may ultimately make it legally impossible for the pardon to stand even if Herzog were inclined to grant it.
What is unfolding is a revealing portrait of the relationship between Washington and Tel Aviv. A US president who has waged a war alongside Israel, who has sanctioned ICC judges for daring to issue arrest warrants against Netanyahu for war crimes, is now also attempting to shield the same man from domestic criminal accountability. The message could not be clearer in Trump’s world, Netanyahu is untouchable, above the law both internationally and domestically, protected by the full weight of American political power.
