The case against Donald Trump after he announced his resignation from the Manhattan district attorney for an investigation of alleged affair with a porn star Stormy Daniels
Prosecutors earlier this month invited the former president to testify to the grand jury, an offer his lawyers declined. But that prompted observers, including Trump himself, to say that an indictment was imminent. Since Trump posted a statement about what he called, without evidence, an imminent “arrest,” cameras have been stationed outside the courts building in Lower Manhattan. At least two people have testified.
In order to indict Trump, a majority of the grand jury has to agree with prosecutors to bring a case against Trump. In a grand jury, the standard of proof is lower than a trial jury, and the decision does not need to be unanimous.
No. When he lost the 2020 presidential election to Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump made a prediction of his own on his social media network, calling for his supporters to protest.
He has been attacking the Manhattan district attorney and other prosecutors in Washington, DC, and Georgia. He warned last week that his arrest would lead to “potential death & destruction” and “could be catastrophic for our Country.”
At a Saturday rally in Texas, Trump claimed that the Democrats were using a new weapon to try to cheat the election.
Trump repaid Cohen for the $130,000 he paid to Stormy Daniels, the porn star who claimed she had an affair with Trump a decade earlier. Trump denied the existence of the affair.
Last week, the district attorney’s investigation appeared to be nearing an end following testimony on March 20 from Robert Costello, who testified on Trump’s behalf to try to undercut Cohen, the prosecution’s key witness.
The former publisher of the National Enquirer was taken out of the Manhattan courthouse building on Monday afternoon. He helped negotiate a payment for his company as chairman of American Media Inc. An agreement has been 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.
Defending the 2020 President from New York: The Jack Smith High-Energy Case in Fulton County, Georgia, wrapped up a grand jury investigation into Trump’s actions on January 6, 2021
If Trump is indicted, the charges are expected to be filed under seal. If the charges were to be brought, Trump would have to surrender and listen to the charges in New York.
There have been security preparations going on for the last few weeks among law enforcement agencies about what will be done if Trump is indicted.
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 said – in a ruling that remains under seal – that Pence can still decline to answer questions related to his actions on January 6 itself, when he was serving as president of the Senate for the certification of the 2020 presidential election.
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. The case may be getting indictments this spring, according to the Fulton County District Attorney.
The New York case is a potential problem for the president. Jack Smith, the special counsel in Washington, is investigating the January 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 efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia.
Breaking the Grand Jury: Donald Trump can’t afford a three-week break, and prosecutors may be the first to charge a former president
That’s due to a pre-planned break beginning next week that coincides with Easter, Passover, and Ramadan, two people familiar with the investigation tell NPR.
There are no public proceedings of the grand jury. Uncertainty is usually the case with the end of grand jury investigations, as jurors can ask for more evidence, witnesses or time for deliberations.
When Cohen decided to plead guilty he said the payments were made at the direction of Donald Trump. Records show Trump personally reimbursed Cohen for the payment, which his company, falsely, called a “retainer” for legal fees. In New York, that could be a Class E felony, punishable by up to four years in prison.
The District Attorney’s office isn’t commenting, but one Trump attorney, 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 case.”
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.