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The Manhattan district attorney has convened a grand jury to decide if President Donald Trump should be indicted on criminal charges related to his business dealings, The Washington Post reports.
The panel was convened recently, the publication reports, and will meet three days per week for the next six months to discuss the criminal probe into Mr Trump and other executives within the Trump Organization. They will likely hear other cases besides the one related to the former president during this time.
Manhattan’s current district attorney, Cyrus Vance Jr, has been investigating the Trump Organization for the last two years on a number of issues, including hush-money payments, tax payments, and property valuations.
Convening the grand jury was an indication that the criminal investigation has ramped up in recent months, and Mr Vance and his team could have evidence a crime has been committed either by Mr Trump or other business executives.
The inquiry into Mr Trump’s business dealings span back to before he was president, and include a look into whether the Trump Organization broke any New York laws in the 2016 hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels.
Investigators were also looking into if the value of the company’s expansive real estate portfolio was manipulated in an effort to defraud banks and insurance companies, according to previous court filings. Compensation to top executives, such as longtime CFO Allen Weisselberg, was also under investigation.
In February, Mr Trump experienced a major blow when the Supreme Court ruled that the Manhattan district attorney’s office could access eight years of the former president’s tax returns.
Then it was revealed earlier in May that New York Attorney General Letitia James and her office would be joining the Manhattan district attorney’s office for the criminal investigation into the Trump Organization’s business dealings.
“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 spokesperson to the attorney general previously said. “We have no additional comment.”
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