Former US President Donald Trump’s Manhattan prosecutors grand jury investigation in the Manhattan District Attorney’s case will not be heard again until April 24, according to a court administration source.
Manhattan prosecutors grand jury schedule. ( Photo: CNN )
Manhattan Prosecutors Trump Grand Jury Schedule
The source added that the Manhattan prosecutors’ grand jury is scheduled to sit on Monday and Wednesday next week but is not expected to review Trump’s case. The grand jury is also set to be off for two weeks after Wednesday. The six-month grand jury was informed of the schedule at the beginning of the proceedings, which is standard.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has been investigating the $130,000 payment made by Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, to adult film actress Stephanie Clifford, also known as Stormy Daniels, in exchange for her silence about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump. Cohen said that Trump directed the payments made before the 2016 presidential election. Trump has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and claimed that the payments were not a campaign violation but a simple private transaction, according to FOX News.
The Trump Organization “grossed up” Cohen’s reimbursement for the payment for tax purposes, according to federal prosecutors. Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 through his own company and was later reimbursed by Trump’s company, which logged the payments as “legal expenses.” Federal prosecutors in the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York decided not to charge Trump related to the payment in 2019, even as Cohen implicated him in his plea deal. The Federal Election Commission also dropped its investigation into the matter in 2021.
Trump’s View of Manhattan Grand Jury
Trump suggested over the weekend that the case had been dropped against him. Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said the case had been dropped because “everyone knows this was a partisan witch-hunt by a radical, leftist DA that sought to weaponize the justice system to influence an election politically.” Bragg has criticized House Republicans who called for him to testify on Capitol Hill about the investigation.
Yahoo News reports, that Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said in a statement that Bragg stands by his previous pledge to publicly state the conclusion of the investigation, “whether we conclude our work without bringing charges or move forward with an indictment.”
The Manhattan DA’s investigation into Trump began in 2019, and initially focused on possible bank, insurance, and tax fraud involving Trump’s Manhattan properties, including Trump Tower and the valuation of his 213-acre estate, Seven Springs, in Westchester. The investigation led to tax fraud charges against the Trump Organization and its finance chief, Allen Weisselberg, last year. Grand jury deliberations and votes are secret, and an indictment remains under seal until an arraignment.
