However, Tacopina has dismissed the invitation, stating that to him, it’s “much ado about nothing” and that there is no legal basis for a case. He further stated that he did not believe prosecutors had committed “one way or another” on a decision on whether to charge Trump. Tacopina said the invitation was “just another example of them weaponizing the justice system against him. And it’s sort of unfair.”
The grand jury has been probing Trump’s involvement in a $130,000 payment made in 2016 to the porn star Stormy Daniels to keep her from going public about a sexual encounter she said she had with the Republican years earlier. The money was paid out of the personal funds of Trump’s now-estranged lawyer, Michael Cohen, who then said he was reimbursed by the Trump Organization and also paid extra bonuses for a total that eventually rose to $420,000.
Cohen pleaded guilty to federal charges in 2018 that the payment, and another he helped arrange to the model Karen McDougal through the parent company of the National Enquirer tabloid, amounted to an illegal campaign contribution. Federal prosecutors at the time decided not to bring charges against Trump, who by then was president. The Manhattan district attorney’s office then launched its own investigation, which has been gathering momentum in recent weeks.
Several figures close to Trump have been spotted in recent days entering the Manhattan district attorney’s office for meetings with prosecutors, including his former political adviser Kellyanne Conway and former spokesperson Hope Hicks. Cohen has also met several times with prosecutors, saying after a recent visit that he thought the investigation was nearing a conclusion.
The district attorney’s office has also spent years investigating whether Trump and his company inflated the value of some of its assets in dealings with lenders and potential business partners. Those allegations are the subject of a civil lawsuit, filed by the state’s attorney general.
Trump, in a lengthy statement posted on his social media network, blasted the investigation as a “political Witch-Hunt trying to take down the leading candidate, by far, in the Republican Party” and what he called a “corrupt, depraved, and weaponized justice system.” He further added, “I did absolutely nothing wrong.”
It remains to be seen what charges prosecutors might be exploring. Legal experts have said one potential crime could be the way the payments to Cohen were structured and falsely classified internally as being for a legal retainer. New York has a law against falsifying business records, but it is a misdemeanor unless the records fudging is done in conjunction with a more serious felony crime. Tacopina, however, has dismissed the possibility of a crime, saying there is no precedent for the campaign finance stuff, and there is no underlying crime.
Any indictment would come as Trump is ramping up a run to regain the White House in 2024 while simultaneously battling legal problems on multiple fronts. The district attorney in Atlanta, Georgia, has said decisions are “imminent” in a two-year investigation into possible illegal meddling in the 2020 election by Trump and his allies. A U.S. Justice Department special counsel is also investigating efforts by Trump and his allies to undo the election as well as the handling of classified documents at his Florida estate.
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