Overview
- In a video released Thursday, the prime minister held up a Bugs Bunny doll and mocked prosecutors, calling the case an effort to force him from office.
- He again denied wrongdoing and said he sought clemency to halt what he portrays as a politically driven and divisive proceeding.
- Days earlier he formally submitted a pardon request to President Isaac Herzog, which is awaiting a response.
- The six-year case has him in court three times a week as the first sitting Israeli leader to be tried on corruption charges.
- Prosecutors allege he and his wife accepted about $260,000 in gifts and pursued favorable media coverage, continued the case through the Gaza war, and President Trump recently urged a pre‑emptive pardon.