Manhattan District Attorney puts grand jury in place to criminally indict Donald Trump and others

| 5:50 pm EDT May 25, 2021
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Here we go. The Manhattan District Attorney had a grand jury in place in the criminal case against Donald Trump dating back to at least late 2019, when the grand jury subpoenaed Trump’s tax returns. But now the Washington Post is reporting that the Manhattan DA has empaneled a new grand jury, specifically to handle criminal indictments in the case against Trump.

The WaPo article goes out of its way to issue all the usual caveats; prosecutors haven’t officially decided whether to ask the grand jury to indict anyone, grand juries can overrule prosecutors, and so on. But in reality, prosecutors don’t empanel a grand jury to hear indictments unless they fully expect to seek indictments, and they fully expect the grand jury to return those indictments. Further, grand juries nearly always return indictments in these situations, because they’re merely being asked if there’s enough evidence to justify going to trial, which of course there already is, or prosecutors wouldn’t be seeking indictment yet.

So now we have about 99% confirmation that Donald Trump will be criminally indicted on state charges in New York. This leaves the question of when. The WaPo article says that this grand jury is being empaneled for up to six months. But we can tell you that this does not mean prosecutors will wait six months before asking the grand jury to indict Trump. If anything, the long timeframe means that prosecutors could be looking to bring some indictments against Trump now, and superseding indictments against Trump later, as the charges continue to be laid out.

This comes shortly after the New York Attorney General announced that she’s also criminally investigating the Trump Organization, and that she was lending personnel to the Manhattan District Attorney’s office to assist with criminal prosecution. Today’s news helps make clear why the Attorney General made the announcement when she did; the process of bringing criminal charges is now officially underway.

It’s also notable that while Donald Trump will almost certainly be criminally indicted by this grand jury, Trump may not be the first person who’s indicted by this grand jury. Prosecutors may opt to indict Allen Weisselberg first, in an attempt at forcing him to flip on Trump. Prosecutors could also indict Donald Trump’s family members for their roles in the Trump Organization, either before or after they indict Donald Trump.

So the timetable and the roadmap for where this is heading are still open to question. But now we know with near certainty that this process will conclude with Donald Trump being criminally indicted, arrested, and put on trial on state charges in New York. At this point the only variables are how many charges Trump will get hit with, and when his arrest will happen. Buckle up.