According to bombshell reporting from Business Insider, scandal-ridden ex-President Donald Trumpโs former personal attorney and self-described โfixer,โ Michael Cohen, will serve as the final witness to appear before the Manhattan grand jury this week, as part of the last stages of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Braggโs investigation into the infamous 2016 โhush moneyโ payments, as multiple recent developments in the case indicate that an indictment against Trump is just around the corner. Insider confirmed that the grand jury is weighing the possibility of lodging felony charges related to falsifying business records against former President Trump.
The news of the bombshell development first broke from the New York Times and both reports confirm that Michael Cohen is expected to present the grand jury with a detailed chronology of the โhush moneyโ payments that Trump ordered him to make to his ex-affair partner, adult film star Stormy Daniels, in 2016, just weeks before the 2016 presidential election, in an effort to buy Danielsโ silence regarding their alleged sexual relationship. Cohen claims that his recounting of the โhush moneyโ incident is thoroughly corroborated by extensive documents, phone records, and email communications.
The explosive news of Cohenโs impending appearance before the Manhattan grand jury comes on the heels of recent reporting confirming that former Trump advisors Kellyanne Conway and Hope Hicks have also recently been spotted at the District Attorneyโs office in connection to the ongoing felony hush money case.
Business Insider reports:
Next weekโs testimony could be the last step before a possible felony indictment against Trump for an alleged scheme to impact the 2016 election by secretly funneling Daniels $130,000 to ensure she stayed silent about an affair she claimed to have with Trump a decade earlier, according to two people with knowledge of the prosecutionโs intentions.
Bragg must authorize his prosecutors to request a grand jury vote before an indictment could be voted on. Itโs unclear if or when that will happen.
Trump may be accused of falsely designating the payment as a โretainerโ to Cohen when it was really an undeclared campaign expenditure, one 0f the people told Insider, asking to stay anonymous to discuss the sensitive matter.โ
Stay up-to-date with the latest news!
Subscribe and start recieving our daily emails.
This past Friday, Cohen reportedly spent the entire day meeting with Manhattan prosecutors who are working on DA Braggโs hush money investigation, assumably as part of the former Trump attorneyโs preparation for his impending grand jury appearance.
Cohen himself was found guilty of multiple charges and jailed in connection to his role in the infamous hush money scheme. Trump himself has not yet seen any personal legal ramifications for the crime.
Featured image via screen capture