NEW YORK — A Manhattan grand jury weighing evidence against Donald Trump is not expected to hear about the “hush money” case for the rest of this week, two sources told the New York Daily News on Tuesday.
The panel will not reconvene Wednesday as expected. When the grand jurors return Thursday, it will be to hear other matters, said the sources, who asked to remain anonymous as grand jury proceedings are confidential. The grand jurors do not sit on Fridays.
Investigative grand juries like the one hearing about Trump’s 2016 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels typically hear about more than one investigation the district attorney is conducting. Hearing eight to 10 cases at a time is not unusual.
The sources said the panel might not hear about the case next week, but the timeline is fluid and subject to change at a moment’s notice. The grand jurors can vote to indict any time they are seated, whether or not they’re hearing about the case that day, legal experts told the Daily News.
District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office has not commented or confirmed any details about the secret proceedings or the pace at which they are moving. Trump whipped up a frenzy after wrongly predicting his arrest on his social media site earlier this month without evidence. It is unknown whether prosecutors have finished presenting evidence.
On Monday, the grand jury heard testimony from David Pecker, the former CEO of American Media Inc., who negotiated the payment to Daniels along with Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen.
According to Cohen’s 2018 federal case, in which Pecker received immunity, the media executive had an arrangement with Trump to “catch and kill” unfavorable stories about him. He alerted Cohen in October 2016 when Daniels agreed to share her story with the National Enquirer about sleeping with Trump in 2006 at a celebrity golf tournament and helped broker the deal with her to stay silent.
American Media Inc. was also involved in a deal with Playboy model Karen McDougal, who claims she had an affair with Trump in 2006 and 2007. The publisher paid McDougal $150,000 for the rights to her story in the months before Trump’s election.
Cohen took out a loan to pay Daniels $130,000 on Trump’s behalf for the “principal purpose” of influencing the election, according to his federal case, which described the hush money as illegal campaign contributions. Trump’s company paid him back the following year in monthly installments “falsely” logged as legal expenses.
Sources connected to Bragg’s investigation believe the DA is considering charging Trump with felonies based on how he reimbursed Cohen.
Trump has not faced any charges stemming from the probe. He’s decried it and several state and federal investigations he’s the target of as part of a Democrat-led “witch hunt.”
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