What to Know
- The Manhattan grand jury that has been weighing charges against former President Donald Trump is not expected to vote this week on a possible indictment in the hush money paid case, though the timetable could change, three sources familiar with the case said Tuesday. affair.
- Sources said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is not expected to reconvene the 23-member panel until Thursday, when they say the group is expected to address matters other than the Trump and Stormy Daniels case. .
- A day ago, the grand jury heard from David Pecker, former CEO of American Media and publisher of the National Enquirer.
NEW YORK — The Manhattan grand jury that has been weighing charges against former President Donald Trump is not expected to vote this week on a possible indictment in the hush money paid case, though the schedule could change, three said Tuesday. sources familiar with the matter.
Sources said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is not expected to reconvene the 23-member panel until Thursday, when they say the group is expected to address matters other than the Trump and Stormy Daniels case. . They did the same thing last Thursday after a meeting scheduled the day before was abruptly cancelled. No reason was given.
A day ago, the grand jury heard from David Pecker, former CEO of American Media and editor of the National Enquirer. It was his second appearance before the grand jury. Why did he go before the grand jury again?
Pecker’s testimony could corroborate Michael Cohen’s claim that the hush money payments were not just personal, but also political, and that they were intended to contain and kill a story that could have impacted Trump’s election.
In 2018, American Media Inc. admitted to paying $150,000 in hush money to former Playboy model Karen McDougal and porn star Stormy Daniels. A statement of admitted facts said AMI’s “primary purpose in making the payment was to suppress the woman’s story to prevent her from influencing the election.”
Federal prosecutors previously granted Pecker immunity in their investigation of Cohen. A week before Pecker’s last appearance, Trump ally Robert Costello, who waived immunity, tried to discredit Cohen before the grand jury.
The president had told the world that he expected to be arrested last Tuesday. Seven days later, no arrest has come in, nor does he have an impeachment vote. And the world is still waiting.
Increased concern over potentially violent protests in the wake of the attack on the US Capitol last year also appears to have subsided somewhat. Two senior law enforcement officials said Monday that an NYPD order directing all officers to report to work in uniform in the event of a potential indictment or protest-related mayhem has been rescinded.
The department continues to monitor events in Lower Manhattan. Protest activity has been largely muted in the absence of any movement in the case from Bragg or the grand jury, which has been secretly hearing evidence for months in the case.
It’s unclear whether testimony from Costello, who could be prosecuted if he perjures himself, influenced Bragg’s grand jury plans in recent days.
Trump has loudly equated the relative silence of the Manhattan grand jury with “NO CASE.” He has mocked Bragg on his social media platform for much of the past week and continued to do so on Truth Social early Monday.
Bragg’s office, which has received threatening letters in the mail potentially related to the case, declined to comment.
It is unclear if any potential organized action could escalate if the grand jury chooses to indict Trump, which would be the first indictment of a former US president or former president in history. But with the death blanket of the January 6, 2022 insurrection still looming, the New York City Police and their law enforcement partners at all levels of government prepared accordingly.
Yolanda Vásquez with the details.
What happened? And what happens now?
Although the grand jury paused last week in its review of the case, former prosecutor Daniel Horwitz said he doesn’t believe the delay stemmed from doubts about the credibility of Cohen, who admitted to and served jail time for lying about paying the porn star
“There are a lot of critics, questions about Michael Cohen. You know, a lot of white collar cases, almost all white collar cases are made up of inside information,” Horwitz said.
Cohen says he is telling the truth about Trump and the forged documents to try to cover up the hush money payments, which are not illegal. However, falsifying business records to protect a presidential campaign could be.
“After reviewing everything, if the prosecutor still believes the evidence supports the charge, I would expect Bragg to file those charges,” trial attorney Robert Gottlieb said.
Columbia law professor John Coffee suggested that the law itself could be a problem for prosecutors because even if the district attorney can prove that Trump falsely billed Daniels for the money to hide his silence, that would only would amount to a misdemeanor. Winning a low-level felony conviction may require connecting it to a federal crime.
“New York statute says it is a misdemeanor if you simply falsify the records. It is a felony if you falsify the record to hide a crime. But if the crime is a federal crime, it’s a different ball of wax,” Coffee said. “It is not entirely clear that New York State has jurisdiction or authority to find a violation of a federal crime.”
Federal prosecutors had said the payments amounted to illegal and unreported assistance to the Trump campaign. But they refused to press charges against Trump himself. The former president has denied all the accusations against him.
