Michael Cohen’s grand jury testimony date revealed, and Donald Trump’s indictment date just became a lot more clear
When the Manhattan DA informed Donald Trump that he was “likely” (you can safely remove that word) being criminally indicted and that it was happening as soon as next week, it raised some questions about the specific timing. For instance, star witness Michael Cohen hasn’t testified to the grand jury yet. His testimony is widely believed to be the final piece of the indictment process. So when was he testifying?
Yesterday a major news outlet reported that Cohen was set to testify to the grand jury on an unknown day this coming week. But that didn’t narrow it down that much. If Cohen was set to testify on Friday, March 17th for instance, then Trump probably wouldn’t be indicted until the following week.
But now The Guardian is reporting today that Michael Cohen is testifying to the grand jury this Monday (that’s just a day and a half from now). Given that there’s really nothing to do after Cohen’s testimony but give a closing statement and ask the grand jury to vote, there is now every reason to expect that Donald Trump could be indicted by the middle of this coming week.
This helps explain why a source close to the Manhattan DA’s office told reporter Brian Karem the other day that Trump should beware the “Ides of March” – which happens to be this coming Wednesday, March 15th. It also explains why the DA was able to confidently tell Trump that his indictment could come as soon as this coming week. Now that we know Cohen is testifying on Monday, it would be entirely realistic for Trump’s indictment to indeed come down this Wednesday – the Ides of March – just as the DA’s office leaked.
