In February, when the Supreme Court of the United States ordered former President Donald Trump to turn over a decade of tax and financial records to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, D.A. Cyrus Vance Jr. said, publicly, nothing more than a brief statement: “The work continues.”
That work — a largely private, two-year criminal investigation into Trump’s business operations — became more public Tuesday when The Washington Post and The Associated Press both reported that a grand jury in New York had convened to hear evidence collected in Vance’s investigation and how, or if, Trump should be indicted.
In a statement Tuesday evening, Trump insisted the convening of the grand jury was the continuation of a partisan “Witch Hunt.”
Here’s what we know about the Trump case
Vance has spent two years investigating a wide array of allegations against for the former president. Those allegation include, the AP reported, “hush-money payments paid to women on Trump’s behalf, property valuations and employee compensation.”
According to the Post, the seating of a grand jury shows that the district attorney’s investigation into Trump has reached “an advanced stage” and that Vance believes “he has found evidence of a crime — if not by Trump, by someone potentially close to him or by his company.”
The special grand jury will “sit three days a week for six months” and “is likely to hear several matters — not just the Trump case — during its term, which is longer than a traditional New York state grand-jury assignment,” reported the Post
New York’s attorney general teams up with Manhattan’s district attorney
New York Attorney General Letitia James said last week that she had partnered with Vance, expanding her own civil investigation into Trump’s business dealing into a criminal case, the Deseret News reported.
- “We have informed the Trump Organization that our investigation into the organization is no longer purely civil in nature. We are now actively investigating the Trump Organization in a criminal capacity, along with the Manhattan DA,” a spokesman James told CNN on May 19.
- Until last week, the state and district investigations had been similar, but separate matters.