President Donald Trump said Monday that Israeli President Isaac Herzog had told him a pardon for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was "on its way," an assertion Herzog's office was quick to challenge.

"He's a wartime prime minister who's a hero. ‍How do you not give a pardon?" Trump told reporters ‍while standing beside Netanyahu before a meeting in Florida. "I spoke to the president ... he tells me it's on its way."

Asked ⁠about the U.S. president's remarks, Herzog's office said the Israeli president had not had any conversations with Trump since a pardon request was submitted several ​weeks ago.

Herzog's office said Herzog had spoken to a representative for Trump then and it was explained that any decision would be made in accordance with established procedures.

Netanyahu, Israel's first ‍sitting prime minister to be charged with a crime, denies bribery, fraud and breach ⁠of trust charges dating back to his 2019 indictment.

His own request for a pardon, submitted on November 30, argued that frequent court hearings impair his ability to govern and that clemency serves the national interest.

The appeal was lodged following the start of ⁠a U.S.-brokered ceasefire in Gaza, as ​his government sought to ⁠bring an end to Hamas' rule under Trump's plan to end two years of war and expand diplomatic ‍ties across the region.

The request by the six-time prime minister had drawn fierce criticism from opponents, who ‌said that pardoning him mid-trial would be a total breach of the rule of law.

According to Israeli law, the president has authority to pardon convicts. But there ⁠is no ​precedent for issuing a ‍pardon mid-trial.

Netanyahu's pardon quest has been boosted by Trump, a close ally who wrote a formal letter to Herzog in November urging him to ‍grant clemency and describing the case as "political, unjustified prosecution."