By Karen Freifeld
(Reuters) – A Manhattan grand jury hearing evidence about former President Donald Trump’s role in a hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels was expected to reconvene on Monday, a law enforcement source said.
The grand jury, which has been meeting since January, could indict Trump over the handling of the payment, which would make him the first U.S. president to face a criminal charge in court.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has been presenting evidence about the $130,000 payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels in the final weeks of Trump’s 2016 election campaign. Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen has said he made the payment at Trump’s direction to buy her silence about a sexual liaison she says she had with Trump in 2006.
Trump has denied an affair took place, and lawyer Robert Costello, who met with Cohen in 2018, has said Cohen told him he acted alone.
Costello testified before the grand jury last week. Cohen, who testified the previous week, pleaded guilty in 2018 to federal charges stemming from the payoff and went to prison for the campaign finance violation, among other crimes.
Trump falsely claimed on March 18 that he would be arrested in the case last Tuesday. Since then Trump has warned of potential “death and destruction” if he faces criminal charges, repeatedly attacked Bragg, and posted a picture of himself holding a baseball bat, next to a photo of the New York prosecutor, that was later deleted.
Trump faces several other criminal investigations, including one tied to the Jan. 6th assault on the U.S. Capitol. He is mounting a comeback bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
(Reporting by Karen Freifeld; additional reporting by Luc Cohen; Editing by Howard Goller)
