Orange Meltdown, Con't

After two years, Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance's probe into the Trump Organization has reached the grand jury phase, but that phase could take well into Thanksgiving or longer.

 

Manhattan's district attorney has convened the grand jury that is expected to decide whether to indict former president Donald Trump, other executives at his company or the business itself should prosecutors present the panel with criminal charges, according to two people familiar with the development.

The panel was convened recently and will sit three days a week for six months. It is likely to hear several matters — not just the Trump case ­— during the duration of its term, which is longer than a traditional New York state grand-jury assignment, these people said. Like others, they spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. Generally, special grand juries such as this one are convened to participate in long-term matters rather than to hear evidence of crimes charged routinely.

The move indicates that District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr.’s investigation of the former president and his business has reached an advanced stage after more than two years. It suggests, too, that Vance believes he has found evidence of a crime — if not by Trump then by someone potentially close to him or by his company.

Vance’s investigation is expansive, according to people familiar the probe and public disclosures made during related litigation. His investigators are scrutinizing Trump’s business practices before he was president, including whether the value of specific properties in the Trump Organization’s real estate portfolio were manipulated in a way that defrauded banks and insurance companies, and if any tax benefits were obtained illegally through unscrupulous asset valuation.

The district attorney also is examining the compensation provided to top Trump Organization executives, people familiar with the matter have said.

A spokesman for Trump and an attorney for the Trump Organization did not respond to requests for comment. The former president has adamantly and repeatedly denied wrongdoing, deriding the investigation as politically motivated.

A spokesman for Vance (D) declined to comment.

 

Typically a grand jury hears multiple possible criminal matters and returns bills of indictment if there's enough evidence to go forward in a case, but exactly when the Trump organization case will come up is anyone's guess. It could be June, or it could be November.

 

We won't know until indictments are unsealed, if at all. The jury could come back and say there's not enough evidence there for the charges Vance is seeking. Maybe it's just the low-end execs, maybe it's Trump's kids, and maybe it's Trump himself, but again, I don't expect charges. NYC would burn for it. Republicans would make sure of that.

In other words, don't expect much, and don't expect anything quickly.