Netanyahu aides say he won’t admit guilt after request for pardon in corruption trial – report

Amid speculation that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s pardon request on Sunday is an opening bid meant to start talks toward a modified admission of guilt, associates of the premier tell Channel 12 that Netanyahu will not admit guilt in his corruption trial.

“The prime minister will not admit guilt… The pardon request is not an ‘opening stance,'” the aides tell the Hebrew network.

According to the report, the request was prepared on Thursday, and throughout the weekend Netanyahu’s family debated whether to submit it.

Ultimately, Netanyahu’s associates, as well as his wife, Sara Netanyahu, supported the move, seeing it as “a win-win situation,” the report adds.

Their reasoning was reportedly that if President Isaac Herzog were to grant the pardon, the indictment would be thrown out and the trial would end; if he were to grant it only in exchange for an admission of guilt, Netanyahu’s camp could claim he was being pushed into an admission through extrajudicial means; and if Herzog were to refuse the request, they could publicly argue that the prime minister set aside his honor and requested a pardon while the legal establishment — including the president — was “mobilizing to convict him at any cost,” according to the network.

The report adds that Netanyahu discussed the pardon request with US President Donald Trump during their phone call this evening, and that the president — who himself urged Herzog to pardon the premier — welcomed the move.