Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg began presenting evidence to a grand jury Monday related to Donald Trump’s role in hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels, sources said Monday — ramping up a probe the former president ripped as “a continuation of the Greatest Witch Hunt of all time.”
National Enquirer’s former publisher David Pecker was spotted heading into the Centre Street building in the morning as part of Bragg’s revived efforts to charge Trump, 76, according to sources.
Pecker was involved in the $130,000 payout to Daniels — whose real name is Stephanie Clifford — to stop her from going public about an alleged affair with Trump in the days leading up to the 2016 election.
Prosecutors want to interview other witnesses, like Dylan Howard, the Enquirer’s former editor, and Jeffrey McConney and Deborah Tarasoff, two workers at Trump’s company, sources told the New York Times. The three have not yet testified before the grand jury.
Trump has denied the affair with Daniels — and did so again on his Truth Social Monday.
“With murders and violent crime surging like never before in New York City, the Radical Left Manhattan D.A., Alvin Bragg, just leaked to the Fake News Media that they are still going after the Stormy ‘Horseface’ Daniels Bull….!” Trump wrote.
“Working closely with the Weaponized Justice Department, this is a continuation of the Greatest Witch Hunt of all time.”
Earlier this month, prosecutors met with Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal attorney and fixer who was convicted of federal charges in 2018 for paying the hush money to Daniels and ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal.
The US Attorney’s Office in Manhattan, opted not to prosecute Trump personally over the payments. Instead, the Manhattan DA’s Office — then headed by Cy Vance Jr. — began investigating the case in 2018 to see if state laws were broken.
But that only resulted in tax fraud convictions against the Trump Organization and its longtime chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, in a case prosecuted by Vance successor Alvin Bragg. The company was fined $1.6 million, while Weisselberg, the prosecution’s star witness, was sentenced to five months in jail.
Earlier this month, Bragg hinted that his office’s Trump probe was moving to the “next chapter” as news broke that he’d reconvened a grand jury, which could lead to possible criminal charges.
Trump could face charges of falsifying business records, as federal filings show Cohen was reimbursed for the hush-money payment as a legal expense.
In February 2022, the criminal case was thrown into question when two top prosecutors resigned amid disagreements with Bragg over how to proceed with the probe.
One of the prosecutors, Mark Pomerantz, has since penned a book, “People V. Donald Trump: An Inside Account,” whose impending publication has prompted Bragg to issue a warning to Simon & Schuster that the book could prejudice his investigation.
Trump is also fighting the release of the tell-all.
A spokesperson for the Manhattan DA’s Office declined to comment. An attorney for Pecker also declined to comment.
