The Manhattan grand jury expected to bring historic charges against Donald Trump has been delayed and will not assemble Wednesday, according to several reports.
Sources familiar with the matter shared the update with Insider, which was the first to report the news Wednesday, along with The New York Times and Politico. The cancellation comes amid reports that the grand jury assembled by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office has been preparing to indict Trump, who said last weekend that he expected to be arrested soon in connection with a hush money payment made to an adult film star in the final weeks of the 2016 election.
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“The grand jury has been told to stay home today. They’re on standby for tomorrow,” a senior law-enforcement official told Politico, adding: “The D.A.’s office didn’t tell the court why the day off, [they] just said, ‘I don’t want them today, maybe tomorrow.’”
There have been mixed reports on when the jury will reconvene, but a Wednesday evening report from NBC News cited two sources saying they will gather again Thursday.
If the grand jury moves forward, Trump will be the first former president in American history to be indicted on criminal charges. He has categorically denied any involvement in the $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, who says she accepted the payment in later 2016 in exchange for her silence on an affair she claims to have had with Trump in 2006.
However, longtime Trump attorney Michael Cohen admitted to orchestrating the payment and was sentenced to three years in prison, though he only served about one year.
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“I felt it was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds,” Cohen told the judge at his 2018 sentencing.
The former Trump ally says that Trump and his business reimbursed him for the hush money expense by falsely identifying it on company records as a legal expense. Sources told the Times that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg will likely build his case around those falsified business records.
