ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS via AFP
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UNITED STATES – A grand jury has been appointed to determine whether the Manhattan prosecutor’s file on Donald Trump and his group can justify a trial, several American media reported on Tuesday, May 25.
According to Washington Post, the jurors were recently selected and will meet three days a week for six months to examine the documents in the case.
In American criminal law, significant cases are often referred by the prosecution to a grand jury, made up of people from civil society, such as jurors in a regular trial.
The grand jury examines the file in secret and may also request additional documents or to hear one or more witnesses. At the end of the examination, it determines, by majority, but not necessarily unanimously, whether there is a matter of indictment, preamble to a trial. The constitution of the grand jury indicates that prosecutor Vance believes he has enough evidence to go to trial.
Towards an indictment?
Cyrus Vance has been investigating since 2019 into possible accounting manipulations of the Trump Organization, Donald Trump’s holding company which manages all of its interests.
The Manhattan prosecutor is primarily looking to determine whether the group artificially inflated the value of its assets to get larger loans and, at the same time, dumped them in its tax returns to lower its taxes.
If it is indeed for Cyrus Vance to obtain an indictment, it is not established that it is Donald Trump himself. It could target the Trump Organization as a legal person or collaborators of the former US president within this holding.
According to several American media, the Manhattan prosecutor’s office recently took a close interest in the financial director of the Trump Organization, Allen Weisselberg, loyal to Donald Trump.
See also on The HuffPost: This Democrat mad with rage at the refusal of the Republicans to investigate the attack on the Capitol
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