Witness expected to testify before Trump grand jury
Former President Donald Trump listens as he speaks with reporters while in flight on his plane after a campaign rally at Waco Regional Airport, in Waco, Texas, Saturday, March 25, 2023, while en route to West Palm Beach, Fla.
Evan Vucci | AP
A witness is expected to testify to the grand jury today in connection with the investigation into Trump, NBC reported.
That scheduled appearance, which is subject to change, would come a week after the last witness testified about the probe. The identity of the expected witness is not known.
Grand jury proceedings are secret.
The prior witness, ex-federal prosecutor Robert Costello, had told the grand jury about his interactions with Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen. Costello had acted as a legal advisor to Cohen when Cohen was under federal criminal investigation in connection with a hush money payment to a porn star for Trump’s benefit.
That payment and how the Trump Organization recorded a reimbursement to Cohen for it, is the subject of a criminal investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, which has been presenting evidence to the grand jury.
— Dan Mangan
In separate probe in Georgia, judge considers hearing over Trump’s bid to block prosecution
The Fulton County court in Atlanta, Georgia, US, on Monday, Feb. 13, 2023.
Dustin Chambers | Bloomberg | Getty Images
A judge overseeing a grand jury probe centered on Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia has ordered prosecutors there to respond after the former president sought to quash their case.
The latest filing from Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ordered District Attorney Fani Willis to respond to Trump by May 1. That response should also include the DA’s view on whether there should be a hearing to resolve the dispute, McBurney wrote in his order Monday.
A week earlier, Trump asked to block that grand jury’s final report and disqualify Willis’ office from continuing the case.
The new calendar item suggests the Fulton County probe, which is separate from the Trump-focused investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, could continue for at least several more weeks.
Willis said in January that charging decisions in the probe “are imminent.” The forewoman of the Atlanta-area grand jury told news outlets last month that jurors had recommended charges against multiple people in the probe.
Meanwhile, Bragg’s probe of a 2016 hush money payment to a porn star who alleges she had sex with Trump is believed to be in its final stages, following news that Trump had been offered the chance to testify before the grand jury.
— Kevin Breuninger
Trump rails against DA Bragg as officials condemn threats
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg speaks to supporters in New York, Nov. 2, 2021.
Craig Ruttle | AP
Trump in a series of early morning social media posts attacked Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and other prosecutors for investigating him, accusing Democrats of using those prosecutors as pawns to damage the former president politically and legally.
“Great job by Congressman James Comer,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social site of the Kentucky lawmaker who as chairman of the House Oversight Committee has demanded Bragg testify to Congress about the criminal probe of Trump.
“The Democrats are using Prosecutors for purposes of Election Interference. It is their new way of CHEATING on Elections!” Trump wrote.
Fifteen minutes after that, Trump wrote that Democrats as “the lowest of the low” by using PROSECUTORS to CHEAT.”
Shortly afterward, Trump misspelled the last name of porn star Stormy Daniels in writing, “Never had an ‘affair’ with her, and would never have wanted.” He also crowed in the same post of being awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees from Daniels in her failed defamation lawsuit against him.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, was paid $130,000 by Trump’s then-lawyer in 2016 to buy her silence about her account of having once had sex with Trump.
Finally, at 1:11 a.m., Trump made the false claim that the U.S. Department of Justice is “running the local Manhattan D.A.’s prosecutor.”
“They just don’t want their ‘fingerprints’ on it,” he wrote.
— Dan Mangan
Grand jury set to resume work after two unexpected days off
New York State Courts Officer sets a barricade outside the District Attorney’s offices, as Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office investigates $130,000 paid in the final weeks of former U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign to Stormy Daniels, a porn star who said she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006 when he was married to his current wife Melania, in New York City, U.S. March 23, 2023.
Andrew Kelly | Reuters
The grand jury that has been hearing testimony for the criminal probe of Trump is scheduled to return to a lower Manhattan courthouse today after not working on the case for most of last week.
The last time the panel heard testimony related to Trump was March 19, when Robert Costello, an attorney who acted as a legal advisor to Michael Cohen, appeared before the grand jury and blasted the former lawyer and fixer for Trump as someone who could not be trusted.
The grand jury then was given Wednesday off unexpectedly. It returned Thursday but did not do work on the Trump case.
Prosecutors can use grand juries to review evidence for multiple criminal investigations.
It was not clear if the Trump grand jury will begin the week with work on his case, or another one.
— Dan Mangan
Source link: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/27/trump-live-updates-grand-jury-set-to-resume-as-former-president-blasts-das-probe.html