Another day passed without an indictment for former President Donald Trump, who had been expected to be arrested on Tuesday in a Manhattan investigation into alleged illegal hush-money payments he made to porn star Stormy Daniels.
A Manhattan grand jury did not meet as scheduled on Wednesday, according to a law enforcement source, though it was unclear why or how long the grand jury would take to complete its work.
If indicted, Trump would be the first president of the United States to face criminal charges in a court of law.
The grand jury, a panel of US citizens residing in Manhattan, has been reviewing evidence in one of many legal investigations swirling around Trump as he prepares to run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.
The panel, which is thought to meet three times a week, could reconvene as early as Thursday. The Insider news outlet was the first to report that the grand jury would not meet on Wednesday.
The office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s spokesperson declined to comment on the grand jury.
The office has been looking into a $130,000 payment made to Daniels, a porn star who claimed she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006 when he was married to his current wife Melania.
Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen has stated that the payment was made at Trump’s request to buy her silence. Trump has denied having an affair.
Cohen went to prison after pleading guilty to federal charges related to the payoff, but prosecutors did not charge Trump in that case. Manhattan has launched and abandoned its own investigation several times.
According to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Tuesday, roughly half of Americans believe the New York investigation is politically motivated, but a large majority believe Trump paid hush money to a porn star.
If charges are filed in the Manhattan case, Trump will be required to travel from his Florida home to New York for a mug shot and fingerprinting. Security officials are bracing for possible unrest, but few of Trump’s supporters have responded to his call for protests so far.
A spokesperson for the New York state court system said that in a non-violent case like this one, the district attorney usually works out a time for the defendant to surrender.
“It could be three days later, a week later, or in May,” said Lucian Chalfen, the spokesperson. “There are no time constraints. There is no set time limit or statutory requirement.”
Trump’s Republican colleagues have slammed the Democrat’s investigation as politically motivated.
On Wednesday, it appeared that Trump had suffered a setback in another investigation.
Several news outlets reported that his lawyer, Evan Corcoran, would appear before a federal grand jury in Washington on Friday to testify about whether Trump mishandled sensitive federal documents.
Special Prosecutor Jack Smith argued that because Trump had not been truthful with his lawyer, normal attorney-client privilege should not apply.
Along with the federal documents investigation, Trump and his political allies are the subject of two criminal investigations, one in Georgia and one by the federal government, stemming from their efforts to overturn Trump’s 2020 presidential election defeat.
On top of that, he is the subject of two New York City investigations into his business practices, as well as a defamation suit filed by a woman who claims Trump raped her in the 1990s, a claim Trump denies.
Trump has escaped legal trouble several times. During his presidency, he faced two attempts by Congress to remove him from office, including a Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the United States Capitol by his supporters, as well as a years-long investigation into his campaign’s contacts with Russia in 2016.
