Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara clarified this morning (Sunday), amid the controversy surrounding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s pardon request, that she “has not yet reviewed the Prime Minister’s pardon request, and it will be examined according to the standard working procedures."
She added, “Any other report on the matter is incorrect." Her remarks came in response to a Channel 13 News report claiming she was expected to argue in a legal opinion that granting the current pardon request would be unlawful.
According to the report, the emerging legal opinion emphasizes that granting a pardon while the legal proceedings are still ongoing is inconsistent with the law and relevant case law.
It was also noted that the Attorney General’s office is currently finalizing the document, which is expected to be forwarded to the prosecution handling the case.
In the next stage of the process, the prosecution is expected to pass the legal opinion to the Pardons Department, where it will be decided whether to also seek a supplementary opinion from Netanyahu’s legal team. The document will then be transferred to the legal adviser at the President’s Residence, where a decision will be made together with President Isaac Herzog on whether to grant the request.
Last night, it was reported that officials at the President’s Residence were surprised and angered by US President Donald Trump’s remarks questioning why President Herzog was not granting Netanyahu a pardon.
“President Herzog refuses to give the Prime Minister a pardon. He has the authority to do it. He doesn’t want to do it. It’s disgraceful. He should give him a pardon," Trump said.
Officials at the President’s Residence hinted that the Prime Minister may have once again sought Trump’s intervention. Close associates of the president said, “What preoccupied the president and his team over the weekend was understanding who ‘encouraged’ Trump to act this way toward the President of the State of Israel. If Netanyahu had a hand in this, it crosses a red line. We expect clarifications from the Prime Minister."
Sources close to Netanyahu responded and emphasized: “President Trump’s remarks the other day regarding the pardon were entirely his own initiative. The Prime Minister learned about them through the media and was not aware of them in advance, just as he was not aware beforehand of the president’s remarks on this matter in his speech to the Knesset."