Trump grand jury canceled for rest of the WEEK: Alvin Bragg facing even MORE questions as panel’s vote on an indictment is pushed back to at least next week as he ‘struggles’ with ‘weak’ case
- Grand Jury members for the case were told not to show up to court Wednesday
- A source told DailyMail.com prosecutors ‘are having trouble convincing the jury’ to indict Trump over hush money payments to Story Daniels
- Panel reconvenes at noon where prosecutors ‘may present one more witness’ – but new reports show they will not be discussing the hush money case
The grand jury will not be convening this week in the case of Donald Trump’s hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
The new reports come after sources told DailyMail.com that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is having trouble convincing jurors to indict Trump.
While the grand jury will return to court Thursday at noon, the panel will be discussing a different case.
Many expected former President Trump to already be indicted, but a court official confirmed with DailyMail.com that Bragg canceled on Wednesday the grand jury, who had been meeting on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays to hear evidence in the case.
It is still unclear why their meeting was prevented amid reports that the panel needs to hear from a final witness before levying a judgment.
There is also no clarity as to why the jurors won’t be discussing the hush money payment when they meet on Thursday.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (pictured Thursday arriving at his office) will not convene the grand jury for the hush money case against Trump. The panel will still convene on Thursday for an unrelated case
Grand Jury members will reconvene at the Manhattan courthouse at noon on Thursday
One source told DailyMail.com that: ‘They are having trouble convincing the jury to swallow the case. It’s a weak case and has caused divisions in the DA’s office.’
Other reports suggested the DA’s office could be contemplating a change of strategy.
Trump has urged his supporters to take to the streets and protest as he still maintains complete innocence of any wrongdoing in the allegations he approved a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about their affair in the midst of the 2016 presidential election.
But bombshell new documents obtained by DailyMail.com show that Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen claimed in a 2018 letter that he was not reimbursed by his client or his businesses for the hush money payments to Daniels.
The letter to federal authorities could throw a wrench in the prosecutors looking to pursue criminal charges against Trump for the payment.
Cohen, a star witness in the trial, claims that Trump reimbursed him with personal funds. He later pleaded guilty to violating federal campaign finance law over the hush money.
Even if Trump is indicted this week, law enforcement sources tell DailyMail.com that he would not need to come to New York for an arraignment until next week. This is good news for the former president, who is preparing for one of his first 2024 campaign rallies in Waco, Texas on Saturday.
All 36,000 New York Police Department (NTPD) officers were put on alert this week, told in a memo Monday to be in uniform and on standby for deployment. The men and women in uniform have maintained a heightened presence around the courts in Manhattan this week with both pro- and anti-Trump protesters decending on the Big Apple.
Police presence included using dogs to sweep the area to sniff for bombs and other nefarious items after the New York courts were flooded with threats earlier this week.
A bomb threat made via a 9-1-1 call on Tuesday shut down the Manhattan civil courthouse Tuesday morning and put proceedings on hold, according to a court spokesperson.
The threat delayed the start of a New York attorney general hearing in a separate case involving Trump and his company allegedly engaging in a yearslong fraud scheme.
Police are using bomb sniffing dogs to patrol the area around Manhattan Criminal Court after someone made a bomb threat via 9-1-1 call on Tuesday
Drug-sniffing K9s were brought into the Manhattan court offices on Thursday to perform a sweep before the DA and grand jury arrived
Trump posted an image Wednesday evening on Truth Social of him posing with a large group of officers and first responders with the NYPD and FDNY. There was no text associated with the post.
In a separate post on his social media platform, Trump also re-upped his claims there was ‘no crime of any kind’ and accused Bragg of ‘election interference’ with weighing indicted a former – and possibly future – president.
As all eyes turn to New York and police and court security are surveying the streets, images emerged of members of the United State Secret Service (USSS) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) setting up a base camp at the Peninsula Hotel in Manhattan.
Meanwhile, Trump is steering clear of the city he once called home, instead remaining at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida.
NYPD remain standing guard outside Trump Tower in Manhattan Thursday morning as the grand jury prepares to reconvene as protesters are expected to continue demonstrating outside the ex-president’s once longtime residence
