Herzog’s effort to broker plea bargain in Netanyahu trial ‘frozen’ due to PM’s failure to respond – report

President Isaac Herzog’s efforts to broker a plea bargain between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the attorney general have reportedly foundered due to the premier’s failure to respond to the initiative.

Kan News reports that Herzog has “frozen” his efforts to arrive at a deal, after proposing negotiations in April.

Last month, Herzog said he was initiating a negotiation process in which he would serve as a mediator between the prosecution and Netanyahu’s attorneys to reach a deal over the corruption charges Netanyahu is on trial for. The president said this was the appropriate path to take before considering Netanyahu’s pardon request.

Although Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara agreed to begin negotiations, Netanyahu failed to respond to the proposal, meaning that Herzog has not been able to advance the initiative.

The president’s office says in response that the report is “incorrect,” without elaborating. But Herzog acknowledged that Netanyahu had not responded to his proposal when he called on the prime minister to “come into the room” during a conference two weeks ago.

Herzog’s offer to broker a plea deal may not be relevant for much longer, since Netanyahu is expected to finish testifying in court in the coming weeks. Netanyahu’s pardon request is based on the claim that it is in the public good that the prime minister not be burdened with spending entire days testifying in court, but if he no longer needs to attend court hearings, the pardon request would become moot, as would Herzog’s mediation offer.