NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump may soon stand in a Manhattan courtroom to face criminal charges.
Prosecutors have informed him he may testify before a grand jury, a source confirmed to the New York Daily News on Thursday — the subject of the probe believed to be the hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election.
The invitation is typically extended when prosecutors are nearing a charging decision. The New York Times first reported the development, noting the invitation was for next week.
Lawyers consulting Trump about the Manhattan district attorney’s yearslong probe and various investigations declined to speak on the record. One said on background that he was unlikely to take District Attorney Alvin Bragg up on the invitation. DA spokeswoman Danielle Filson declined to comment.
After landing in Florida, Trump’s lawyer Joe Tacopina told the Daily News that he would represent the former president in the potential criminal case, after defending him at a civil rape trial this April in a lawsuit brought by writer E. Jean Carroll.
“Nothing has changed. If they bring a case, it will be a grave mistake on behalf of the Manhattan district attorney’s office. I mean, this case comes without precedent. It’s once again the justice system being used as a weapon against Donald Trump,” Tacopina said. “It’s not right and it’s not gonna survive.”
The potential charges would mark the first ever brought against a former president. Sources involved in the case expect they will relate to how Trump and his business classified hush money reimbursement checks to Michael Cohen — and concealed them to hide their political motivations. That legal approach has yet to be tested in court, according to experts interviewed by the Daily News.
Cohen, Trump’s fixer-turned-enemy, went to federal prison over the payouts. In his 2018 guilty plea, he said Trump directed him to pay $130,000 to Daniels to silence her about an alleged tryst in 2006 to influence the election outcome. Cohen is expected to take the stand imminently, having met with investigators at least 20 times.
The investigation into Trump and his business dealings, first launched by former DA Cyrus Vance, has lasted three years. Bragg recently revived it with the impaneling of a grand jury and prosecutors summoning longtime Trump aides such as Kellyanne Conway and Hope Hicks to his lower Manhattan offices.
Whether or not he takes the stand, a panel of New Yorkers may soon see the former president testify at his upcoming federal trial. Tacopina said Trump was “ready, willing and able” to take the stand in the spring.
Carroll has accused Trump of sexually assaulting her inside a Midtown department store in the mid-1990s. A judge has yet to decide whether her lawyers can call two more women who have accused Trump of sexual misconduct to testify.
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