Manhattan DA put a surprise witness in front of the grand jury today – and it’s bad news for Donald Trump
Former National Enquirer boss David Pecker testified to the Manhattan grand jury today against Donald Trump, according to multiple major news outlets. So this took an interesting turn.
First, can the indictment still come down today? Theoretically yes. Pecker reportedly finished up about 3:30. But we don’t know for certain he’s really the final witness. Even if he is, Bragg could just as easily decide to indict today or Wednesday. So we don’t know that part. But what do we know?
Pecker helped Trump catch and kill negative stories during the 2016 election. It’s long been reported that the Manhattan DA secured Pecker’s testimony. But why put Pecker in front of the grand jury today, at the last minute?
Given that Trump’s witness Robert Costello hurled a number of questionable claims at the grand jury, it’s entirely possible – in fact probable – that the DA brought in Pecker today to refute those claims.
I said at the time that Trump was making a mistake out of desperation by sending Costello to the grand jury instead of saving him as a last minute surprise witness at trial. And it appears the DA may already be using other witnesses to dismantle the Trump-Costello defense.
In such case, the delay last week would be explained by the DA’s office wanting to review all of the testimony they had, to see who best refuted Costello, determining it was Pecker, and then having to line up Pecker to testify.
If this is the case, it’ll mean Trump managed to delay his indictment by a week, but blew his trial defense in the process. Talk about desperate short term thinking.
It’s less likely, but also theoretically possible, that Pecker is not there to refute Costello, and it instead means the DA has broadened the case against Trump. That said, it’s not clear what additional crimes Pecker alone could nail Trump for.
Nor do we know for certain that Pecker is the final witness. Michael Cohen was supposed to be the final witness. Then Costello was supposed to be the final witness. It’s a reminder that with grand jury cases, the media and the public are only ever working with fractional information.
One thing is for certain: in spite of Trump’s claims over the weekend, the case hasn’t been “dropped.” As always, he just made that up. Remember, his one skill is scaring you into thinking he’s already magically won, so you’ll give up and stop trying to fight back against him. Meanwhile back in the real world, it’s clear that the Manhattan criminal case against him is alive and pecking.
