Former US President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event in Waco, Texas, US, on Saturday, March 25, 2023.
Brandon Bell | Getty Images
Former President Donald Trump shouldn’t be expected to face indictment this week within the probe into his then-lawyer’s hush money payment to a porn star before the 2016 election, NBC News reported.
The grand jury shouldn’t be expected to satisfy Wednesday, and is ready to listen to a unique matter when it sits on Thursday, three sources accustomed to the matter told NBC. If the grand jury sticks to that schedule, the soonest an indictment could come down is Monday.
Trump earlier framed the probe by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office as a latest way of “cheating” in elections.
Trump’s latest accusation echoes past, false claims he made leading as much as and after the 2020 presidential, when he said there was widespread fraud in consequence of mail-in ballots that became more common as a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic, and to suppression of his supporters’ vote.
He and his allies argue that Bragg’s probe, and others by a Georgia prosecutor and the Department of Justice, are designed to harm his probabilities of winning the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, and, ultimately regaining the White House.
The Manhattan grand jury that has been hearing testimony within the hush money case is predicted to have the day without work Tuesday, a day after former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker made his second appearance before the panel.
That implies that the earliest day the grand jury could vote on a possible indictment of Trump is Wednesday.
Pecker tipped off Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen in 2016 that porn actress Stormy Daniels was shopping around a story about having had sex with Trump a decade earlier.
Cohen soon afterward paid Daniels $130,000 to maintain her quiet in regards to the alleged tryst.
Trump denies having sex with Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.
Bragg’s investigation is targeted on the Trump Organization recording Trump’s reimbursement to Cohen for the payment as “legal expenses.” It’s a misdemeanor under Recent York state law to misclassify business expenses in official records, and that may turn into a felony if the false statement was done to hide one other crime.
Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to multiple federal crimes, including to a federal campaign finance violation for the payment to Daniels.
