The grand jury hearing evidence in the Manhattan District Attorney’s investigation into former President Donald Trump will be out of the case for the rest of the week, multiple sources told Fox News Tuesday.
A court source and others told Fox News that the grand jury, which is expected to reconvene on Wednesday, will be finished with the case until next week.
The secret grand jury concluded its work Monday afternoon without voting on Trump’s case, sources told Fox News Monday. Those proceedings came after being canceled twice last week by Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg.
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Bragg has been investigating the $130,000 hush money payment that then-Trump attorney Michael Cohen made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford. That payment was made in the weeks leading up to the 2016 presidential election in exchange for her silence over an alleged sexual encounter with Trump in 2006.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg speaks at a news conference following the Trump Organization sentencing hearing at the New York Supreme Court on January 13, 2023 in New York City. A jury last month found the Trump Organization guilty and convicted the organization of conspiracy, criminal tax fraud, falsifying company records and filing false tax returns in an attempt to defraud the state. The organization was ordered to pay the maximum fine of $1.6 million dollars. The case is separate from the civil suit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James against the Trump Organization. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images) (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
Cohen has said Trump directed the payments. Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 through his own company and was later reimbursed by Trump’s company, which recorded the payments as “legal fees.”
Trump has repeatedly denied wrongdoing regarding the payments to Daniels, and has repeatedly said the payments were “not a campaign violation” but rather a “simple private transaction.”
The Trump Organization “disqualified” Cohen’s compensation for Daniels’ payment for “tax purposes,” according to federal prosecutors who filed criminal charges against Cohen in 2018 for the payments.
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Federal prosecutors at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York refrained from indicting Trump in connection with the 2019 Daniels payment, even as Cohen implicated him as part of his plea deal. The Federal Election Commission also threw its investigation into the matter in 2021.
Over the weekend, Trump suggested the case against him had already been dropped.
DAVENPORT, IOWA – March 13: Former President Donald Trump speaks at the Adler Theater in Davenport, Iowa on March 13, 2023. Trump’s visit follows that of potential challengers for the GOP presidential nomination, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, who hosted events in the state last week. ((Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images))
“I think they’ve already dropped the case,” Trump told reporters aboard his plane after showing up at his first 2024 campaign rally in Waco, Texas.
“It’s a bogus case,” he said. “Some fake cases, they have nothing at all.”
When asked to comment on Trump’s claim that the case was dropped, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung told Fox News Digital: “This has been dropped because everyone knows this was a partisan witch hunt by a radical , left-wing prosecutor who wanted to politically weaponize the case. Judicial system to influence elections.”
Meanwhile, Bragg has criticized House Republicans who have called for him to testify on Capitol Hill about the investigation.
“We review cases in our jurisdiction based on the facts, law and evidence. It is not appropriate for Congress to interfere with ongoing local investigations,” the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said in a statement.
The office told Fox News Digital that Bragg is sticking to its earlier promise to publicly announce the conclusion of the investigation, “whether we terminate our work without filing charges, or proceed with an indictment.”
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When Bragg took over as district attorney in January 2022, he stopped pursuing charges against Trump and suspended the investigation “indefinitely,” according to one of the top prosecutors who resigned in protest.
Prosecutors Mark Pomerantz and Carey Dunne, who had led the investigation under former DA Cyrus Vance, resigned after Bragg expressed doubts about pursuing a case against Trump.
The Manhattan prosecutor’s investigation into Trump began in 2019 by then-State Attorney Cyrus Vance. The investigation focused on possible banking, insurance and tax fraud. The case initially concerned financial transactions of Trump’s properties in Manhattan, including his flagship Fifth Avenue building, Trump Tower, and the valuation of his 213-acre Seven Springs estate in Westchester.
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The investigation led to allegations of tax fraud against the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, last year.
Grand Jury deliberations and votes are secret proceedings and an indictment typically remains sealed to an indictment.
Marta Dhanis is a reporter and field producer based in New York who focuses on criminal justice and the courts. Follow her on Twitter: @MartaDhanis
