surrounding legal drama The New York grand jury won't meet on Wednesday as Trump reaches a fever pitch. At the same time that the tremen...
surrounding legal drama The New York grand jury won't meet on Wednesday as Trump reaches a fever pitch.
At the same time that the tremendous legal hazard around Donald Trump is intensifying, the former president is making headway in the 2024 Republican primary, which is becoming more and more dominated by criminal investigations in New York, Washington, and Atlanta.
Yet, the public and the former president are in the dark about the possibility of an indictment and when it would be brought.
According to a person familiar with the case, the Manhattan grand jury that has been hearing testimony in the Trump investigation will not convene on Wednesday.
With attention focuses on Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who may soon charge Trump for a hush-money payment scheme to adult film star Stormy Daniels, the grand jury was expected to convene and perhaps consider an indictment. The Democrat Bragg hasn't said much about the investigation's state or whether Trump would even be prosecuted.
The conversations between Daniels and Joseph Tacopina, a lawyer who is currently defending Trump, have been given to the Manhattan district attorney's office, according to Daniels' lawyer, who told CNN that this could be another setback for Trump. The conversations, which are claimed to have taken place in 2018, when Daniels was looking for legal counsel, give rise to the prospect that Tacopina won't be supporting Trump in the case.
According to people close to the former president, Trump appears to have accepted the possibility that the Manhattan district attorney may indict him at his house in Mar-a-Lago since he has simultaneously praised how it would benefit him politically and lamented how "unfair" it is.
Trump is the subject of a different investigation into the handling of confidential documents being conducted by special counsel Jack Smith. According to sources familiar with the situation, there has been a frenzy of activity over the past day as a result of a significant judgement from a district court judge showing that the Justice Department successfully argued it had evidence showing Trump may have committed a crime.
Now, the appeals court must determine whether to spare Evan Corcoran from testifying or compel him to do so.
The Justice Department and Trump's attorneys were given mere hours by the three-judge appeals court panel to submit their briefs in the matter, which signals that the appeals court views this as a pressing issue that needs to be resolved quickly.
Notwithstanding the possibility of a more significant legal threat to the president from the special counsel investigation, the Manhattan district attorney seems most likely to file charges. Several of the former president's advisers expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of information surrounding a potential indictment and the logistical challenges associated with an appearance in New York, where Trump would be arraigned, amid the uncertainty surrounding how the protracted investigation will end.
Another adviser told CNN, "We're prepping for what we can: What does he say and when." "For now, there's not a lot we can truly plan for."
What can we plan for: When and what does he say? CNN was told by another advisor. "For now, there's not a lot we can truly plan for."
A Georgia probe into the former president over attempts to rig the state's 2020 election is also being fought against by Trump's legal team. This Monday, Trump's attorneys urged a court to throw out the findings of the special grand jury in Fulton County as well as the supporting documentation.
Charges in the Fulton County case could be brought as soon as this spring, according to prior CNN reporting. The potential indictment of Trump in New York is not delaying those decisions.
A new development has been added to this story.
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