UNITED STATES: In relation to the investigation started by the Manhattan District Attorney after hush money was paid to porn actress Stormy Daniels, Donald Trump is still being looked at for possible charges. No other former or present president has ever been indicted before.
The Manhattan grand jury investigating Donald Trump over hush money payments turned to other matters on Thursday, delaying until next week at the earliest any vote on a historic indictment of the former president, according to a person familiar with the matter. The panel does not meet on Fridays.
The New York panel is an investigative grand jury. That means it hears other cases beyond the highly publicized one focused on hush money paid on Trump’s behalf during the 2016 presidential campaign to a porn actress who says she had a sexual encounter with him years earlier.
James Comer, the head of the House Oversight Committee, took a big step towards making sure Congress would be involved in the Manhattan District Court investigation on Sunday by using his position to ask Alvin Bragg for answers.
He said to a news media source, “If Mr Bragg wants to come in and explain to us what he’s doing, and he makes a good explanation, he makes a good argument, and we see that we’re in an area where we shouldn’t belong, such as the Republicans and some of the Republican senators say, then we will back off.”
“I don’t believe that Bragg would be doing this if Donald Trump were not running for president, and that’s something that we would like to ask Mr Bragg as well,” he added.
Comer also mentioned that he would have welcomed the investigation if it had been initiated by the Department of Justice rather than a local district attorney.
Bragg’s office says that the decision on whether to charge the former president would be much clearer, especially when it comes to falsifying business records. This is because Trump paid the porn actress $130,000 at the height of the 2016 presidential election to stop her from publicly saying that she had an affair with Trump. Trump, however, disagrees with all claims, including a possible affair with Daniels. Last week, Trump anticipated his arrest and had requested his supporters to stage protests.
Also Read: Not a Crime, Not a Misdemeanor, Trump on Hush Money
