Netanyahu negotiating plea deal in corruption trial - POLITICO

The deal, which could be signed as early as this week, could usher Netanyahu off the Israeli political stage for years.

TEL AVIV, Israel — Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is negotiating a plea deal in his corruption case, a person involved in the talks said Sunday.

The deal, which could be signed as early as this week, could usher Netanyahu off the Israeli political stage for years, paving the way for a leadership race in his Likud party and shaking up Israeli politics.

The person involved in the negotiations said the plea deal would drop the bribery and fraud charges and scrap one case entirely.

The person said a number of elements remained unresolved, including the inclusion of the charge of “moral turpitude,” which under Israeli law would ban Netanyahu from politics for seven years.

In the second case, Netanyahu is accused of orchestrating positive coverage in a major Israeli paper in exchange for promoting legislation that would have harmed the news outlet’s chief rival, a free pro-Netanyahu daily

The third, nicknamed Case 4000, alleges that Netanyahu promoted legislation worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the owner of Israeli telecom giant Bezeq in exchange for positive coverage on its Walla news site