What you should know
- All eyes have been on Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg regarding a possible indictment against Donald Trump.
- Sources familiar with the matter told NBC 4 The jury is expected to reconvene on Monday and will reportedly hear from another witness in connection with the case over an alleged secret payment involving adult film star Stormy Daniels.
- If the Manhattan jury were to indict Trump, it would mark the first criminal charges against a former or sitting US president. However, any charge or conviction would not prevent you from applying.
NEW YORK — The Manhattan jury that has been weighing possible charges against former President Donald Trump is expected to meet Monday, reportedly to hear another witness in the case over an alleged secret payment involving the movie star. for adults, Stormy Daniels, sources familiar with the case announced to our sister network NBC 4.
Details of who the witness might be were not released, but the schedule is subject to change, the sources added.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg arrived at his office Monday morning and would not comment on the ongoing investigation. The jury has been secretly hearing evidence for months in the case.
Our sister network News 4 reported that security plans were being developed in case an indictment could be filed as soon as last week, but a day after that report, Trump told the world that he expected to be arrested. No arrest came.
On Wednesday of last week the 23 Manhattan jurors were supposed to meet but were told by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to stay home and return Thursday, three sources familiar with the matter said. However, the next day they did not speak of Trump, according to the sources, although it is not clear why. Earlier last week, they heard testimony from Trump ally Robert Costello, who sought to discredit key prosecution witness Michael Cohen, a former lawyer and Trump mediator, as “totally unreliable.”
It is not clear if the testimony of Costello, who had waived immunity and could therefore be prosecuted if he committed perjury, took into account the plans of the Bragg jury in recent days.
Trump has loudly equated the relative silence of the Manhattan 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 whether any potential organized action could escalate if the grand jury chooses to indict Trump, which would be the first indictment of a former or sitting US president in history. However, any charge or conviction would not prevent you from applying.
With the death robe of the January 6 insurrection still looming large, the NYPD and its law enforcement partners at all levels of government are preparing accordingly.
Facing a possible criminal case against him, Donald Trump took a defiant stance on Saturday before supporters at a political rally in Waco.
The political act took place a day after Trump hinted that a specter of violence is not ruled out if he becomes the first ex-president to face criminal charges in US history.
Trump has pleaded not guilty in the Manhattan inquiry into which he silenced porn actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election so she would not speak publicly about a sexual encounter she said she had with him years earlier.
Trump said the Manhattan federal prosecutor was investigating him “for something that is not a crime, not a misdemeanor, not a sentimental relationship.”
Luis Alejandro Medina with the report.
What happened? And what happens now?
Although the jury paused last week in its review of the case, former prosecutor Daniel Horwitz said he doesn’t think the delay stemmed from doubts about the credibility of Cohen, who admitted to and served jail time for lying about paying the star. for not.
“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.
Meanwhile, the world is still waiting.
Even if the Manhattan jury were to argue about Trump on Monday, it would not guarantee a potential same-day impeachment vote. Legal experts said it is a complicated case and every detail must be reviewed before proceeding.
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.
López Obrador, who has previously boasted of his “very good relationship” with Trump, echoed the voices in the United States that dismissed the case as “political persecution.”
