(Joshua Paladino, Headline USA) The Manhattan District Attorney will lose his key witness at April’s end if he does not file charges in the never-ending probe into former President Donald Trump‘s alleged tax violations and hush-money payments.
Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, said he will give DA Alvin Bragg nine more days to compile evidence, at which point the current grand jury will expire and a new grand jury would have to restart the entire procedure, according to the Daily Beast.
Cohen said he will not spend more time relitigating the same issues before a new 23-member grand jury.
“No. I spent countless hours, over 15 sessions—including three while incarcerated,” he said. “I provided thousands of documents, which coupled with my testimony, would have been a valid basis for an indictment and charge.”
The case, which prosecutors named after Cohen, relies almost exclusively on his testimony that he acted as Trump’s “Fixer.” He claimed that he helped Trump overvalue his assets and protected him from angry former lovers, like Stormy Daniels.
Cohen said he has provided more than enough evidence to charge Trump.
“The fact that they have not done so despite all of this… I’m not interested in any further investment of my time,” he said.
Cohen has become disillusioned with the investigation since Bragg announced in late March that he did not have enough evidence to charge Trump, CNN reported.
“I was disappointed. I was discouraged. And I was distressed,” Cohen said. “I was disappointed, because no one is supposed to be above the law.”
Building a case against Trump will become more difficult if Bragg does not seek charges with this grand jury, according to Alissa Marque Heydari, a former Manhattan assistant district attorney.
“Generally speaking, re-presenting a case is logistically difficult and also long-term problematic for the case. You’re creating more opportunity for impeachment of a witness,” Heydari said.
“You now have a witness who has testified twice. Nobody is going to testify the same way every single time. The defense can say this person is clearly lying because they can’t keep their story straight.”
