The New York Times is reporting
the Manhattan district attorney
has begun
presenting evidence to a grand jury
about hush money
payments made to adult
film star Stormy Daniels
during the 2016 presidential election
Trump's former attorney, Michael
serve three years in prison
for charges
tied to those payments
while working for then-Candidate
The development signals
that District Attorney
Alvin Bragg is nearing a decisio
about whether
to potentially charge Trump.
Here is what he told us on
CNN this morning.
Just last month,
Is that correct that you are loo
to jumpstart that criminal inqui
Well, so first
I want to take issue
with the word jumpstart.
As I said, the Times word not I
I understand.
You know, we have been continuously workin
with with rigor throughout the y
And you're going to be
maybe displeased with the answer
because I'm not going to.
We have not confirmed or denied,
as you said. That's The Times re
Look, we're working on a number
and perspectives with this.
Like I said,
this is one chapter
and an important chapter.
But there are a lot of,
you know, tentacles, if you will
Well, we're following the facts
where they go.
You said in the end to The New Y
and also in other interviews,
I've heard you saying that this
this was just a chapter
and people shouldn't
read ahead in the book.
I'm wondering what that means, i
because that sort of
looks like people are saying
like you're saying to people,
stay tuned,
there's something on the horizon
So, you know, what I'm saying is
let's pause for the moment as we
This is I think it's very conseq
the work that went into this,
how ably the people of the state
in New York were represented.
But as I said back in April,
there's other work going on
and we're continuing that wasn't
We've been doing it.
So let's talk about all this
with Maggie
Haberman, CNN
political analyst
and senior political corresponde
for The New York Times.
This is a big deal, Maggie.
Because his predecessor, Cy Vanc
had brought together a grand jur
to look at Trump's broader
business practices.
The D.A.,
who our viewers just heard
from, Alvin Bragg,
stop that,
got a lot of criticism now start
which hinges on likely the coope
of Allen
Weisselberg, the former Trump CF
if they can get that.
A difficult legal theory,
but it could come with a signifi
toll to the former president.
That's right.
As you note, it's not a slam dun
It's not clear that this case
will definitely end in charges.
But the mere fact of the existen
of this special grand jury,
which means that this meeting ov
six months
as opposed to a 30 day
grand jury, is significant
and is yet another legal threat
to the former president who is f
probably a number of them.
This is also on a topic
that he gets very, very sensitiv
You know, we saw him
posting on his social media webs
about it yesterday.
This relates not just to Amos
but to his family.
And so we will see where those
there's other work.
He said in the interview,
there's other work going on.
And he said that a number of tim
I think it was during that inter
related to the first question,
because they were wrapping up
Mueller's investigation
into the Trump
right into the Trump organizatio
And then I followed
and asked the question,
Poppy, as a question.
And then we followed again.
And he just kept saying,
I would not get ahead.
There's other stuff going on.
So I'm just wondering
what this means in Trumpworld
for the entire investigation
and a lot of this.
Maggie, we should remember,
stemmed from Michael Cohen's tes
to Congress in front of Congress
Yeah. Look, Michael
Cohen is at the center
of a bunch of investigations
that have taken place
over the course
of the last several years,
but particularly in New York,
where he is a key figure.
He's a key figure here.
It was the key witness investiga
Trump's business.
And it's worth
remembering on that investigatio
You know, as you know,
the district attorney
did not end up
the current district attorney
did not end up bringing charges.
One of the prosecutors who worke
the case
was very upset about it,
wrote a pretty angry resignation
and is now writing a book.
So I can't totally divorce
what Alvin Bragg is saying
about ongoing work
from the fact of that upcoming b
But I do think that Alvin Bragg
wants to signal
very clearly to the public
and certainly to Donald Trump
you are still under scrutiny.
And Michael Cohen, you know,
they could say, well, he's
a convicted criminal.
You know, he's
not a reliable person for this.
But what's your sense,
Maggie, is you know,
we've talked to people
in Trump's inner circle
all the time of how he's viewing
all of these investigations,
all of this as he's
now actually doing
events on his 2024 run.
This is Caitlin
the closest that he has come
to facing any kind of criminal l
I don't just mean this case.
I mean, across
the board is facing an investiga
as you know, in Georgia.
There are two Justice
Department investigations.
There is this
this blitz of civil litigation.
There's the Letitia James
fraud lawsuit
that is facing the attorney gene
in New York.
That one's not criminal,
but it could still really grind
This is the worst
sort of
spate of legal problems
that he has faced in a very,
very long time.
And he's not happy about it.
Now, remember, he tends to look
strictly through the lens of eit
how much money he's paying
or whether anyone is facing
criminal charges.
And right now,
those are two very real threats
So he is not happy.
He's focused on the presidential
and much more pleasing to him.
But that has its own
potential hurdles
because his support is not where
Yeah. And he and that attorney
just got that massive
filing by the massive fee
that they have to pay as well.
That's something that has bother
I'm told.
Maggie Haberman, thank you so mu