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Photo: Angus Mordant/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Don’t expect any word on a possible Donald Trump indictment this week.
After canceling its Wednesday meeting, the Manhattan grand jury is convening again Thursday — but, according to the Associated Press, the panel reportedly will not be discussing the Trump case. This likely means a potential indictment of the former president wouldn’t occur until next week, at a minimum.
It’s not clear why the delay has taken place, though there’s reports that the jury could potentially hear from an additional witness. CNN, citing sources, reports that the Manhattan district attorney’s office is determining whether to bring back Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen for more testimony or another witness entirely before the panel votes on an indictment.
The grand jury last heard testimony related to the Trump case on Monday, when attorney Robert Costello testified against Cohen, his former client and the key witness in the Manhattan district attorney’s investigation. Costello, in a press conference following his testimony, said he provided hundreds of emails about Cohen to the DA’s office, but claimed the prosecutors “cherry-picked” from the group of messages and didn’t ask about them in full.
NBC News obtained the emails from Costello on Wednesday, reporting that the 321 messages didn’t seem to contain any “smoking gun” that would disprove Cohen’s narrative that Trump directed he pay Stormy Daniels hush money during the 2016 presidential campaign. Many of the emails are reportedly “messages Costello sent to Cohen that went unanswered, as well as messages from Costello and other lawyers complaining that Cohen was not returning their calls or emails.” One message from December 2018 featured Costello recalling that Cohen once said to him, “He had nothing on The President.”
After wrongly predicting his “arrest” would take place on Tuesday, Trump continued to rail against District Attorney Alvin Bragg on Truth Social.
In one message, Trump called Bragg, who is Black, a “SOROS BACKED ANIMAL WHO JUST DOESN’T CARE ABOUT RIGHT OR WRONG NO MATTER HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE HURT.”
“THIS IS NO LEGAL SYSTEM, THIS IS THE GESTAPO, THIS IS RUSSIA AND CHINA, BUT WORSE. DISGRACEFUL!” he wrote.
Bragg has largely remained quiet as Trump and his supporters have increased their verbal attacks on his office, though he said in an email to his office over the weekend, “We do not tolerate attempts to intimidate our office or threaten the rule of law in New York” following the former president’s call for protest.
The district attorney also responded to a request from House Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan asking for testimony and documents related to Trump the investigation, accusing him of “abuse of prosecutorial authority.” In a letter, Bragg said the Republicans’ investigation is an “unprecedented inquiry into a pending local prosecution.”
“The letter’s requests are an unlawful incursion into New York’s sovereignty,” he wrote.
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