A source says that the NY grand jury will be out of commission for most of April
Investigating the Hush Money Payout to Stormy Daniels in the Preliminary 2018 Presidential Campaign Using a Criminal Investigation of Donald Trump
Since then, two more witnesses have testified, including lawyer Robert Costello, who appeared on Trump’s behalf. The grand jury heard testimony from the former chairman of the National Enquirer who testified about his part in the payment of the hush money.
Next week is when the grand jury may be asked to take a vote on indicting the president, because they aren’t expected to meet for the rest of the week.
No. In the weeks before he lost the 2020 election, Trump made comments on social media calling for his supporters to protest, and posted a prediction of being arrested last Tuesday.
He’s continued to rail against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and the other prosecutors investigating him in Washington, DC, and Georgia. Last week, he warned that his arrest would lead to death and destruction.
The new weapon used by out of control Democrats to cheat on elections is a criminal investigation of a candidate, according to Donald Trump.
Bragg is investigating Trump over the reimbursement of a $130,000 payment Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, made to Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election for her silence about an alleged affair with Trump a decade earlier. Trump has denied the affair.
The district attorney was on a path to wrap up their investigation by the end of March, after testimony from Robert Costello, who testified on Trump’s behalf.
On Monday, the publisher of the National Enquirer was taken into and out of the Manhattan courthouse building. He was a key player in the scheme, helping to negotiate the hush money payment as chairman of American Media Inc. The agreement was signed with prosecutors.
Pecker’s testimony suggests the district attorney’s office may have felt the need to rebut the testimony of Costello, who claimed Cohen had made the payment to Daniels on his own.
New York, NY, Attorney General Jeff Bragg, and the New York Case for the Special Counsel Jack Smith Investigative Investigation into Trump’s 2020 Campaign
The charges are not expected to be made public if Trump is indicted. Trump’s attorneys would then likely be notified and preparations would be made for Trump to travel to New York to surrender and hear the charges.
Several law enforcement agencies have been preparing security for a potential Trump indictment in Manhattan for the past several weeks.
What Bragg has made clear is that the public will know what happens: he’s pledged to publicly state whether or not Trump is going to be charged once the investigation has concluded.
A federal judge recently ordered former Vice President Mike Pence to testify to a grand jury about conversations he had with Trump leading up to January 6, 2021, as part of special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into January 6.
But the judge stated that the vice president can still decline to answer any questions related to his actions in January of 2020, when he was the president of the Senate.
Still, the ruling is a major win for Smith, and the latest in a string of legal victories for the special counsel seeking to obtain testimony from Trump’s current and former aides.
Last week, Trump’s primary defense attorney Evan Corcoran appeared before a federal grand jury, where he was expected to answer questions in Smith’s investigation into the handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, after Trump unsuccessfully fought to keep him from testifying.
In addition to the special counsel’s pair of investigations, a special grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia, wrapped up an investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election earlier this year. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has suggested indictments could be coming in that case as soon as this spring.
The New York case is one of several investigations that could pose legal troubles for Trump. In Washington, special counsel Jack Smith is investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol and the handling of classified documents at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is investigating attempts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia.
Pre-Planned Break in Grand Jury Investigations: An Investigation into a Charge of a Former President on a Tax-Sensitive Charge
Two people with knowledge of the investigation tell NPR there will be a pre-planned break that coincides with Easter, Passover, and Saddam Hussein’s birthday.
The grand jury proceedings are not made public. Uncertainty surrounds the conclusion of grand jury investigations because prosecutors are banned from speaking about them and jurors can ask for more evidence or time to deliberate.
When Cohen pleaded guilty, he said he made payments “at the direction” of Donald Trump and he was sentenced to three years in prison. Records show Trump personally reimbursed Cohen for the payment, which his company, falsely, called a “retainer” for legal fees. It’s a Class E felony in New York, and can lead to up to four years in prison.
The District Attorney’s office isn’t commenting, but one Trump attorney, Alina Habba, who is working on a separate civil case brought by the New York attorney general, issued a statement saying, “It is not normal to take a three-week break when you are up against a statute of limitations.”
Prosecutors have said the statute of limitations does not apply in this case because Trump has resided out of state since 2017, and because of COVID-19.
The pre-planned break means that prosecutors in other jurisdictions, including Special Counsel Jack Smith in Washington, D.C., and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in Georgia, could be the first prosecutors in the country to criminally charge a former president.
