In a surprise move, the New York grand jury probing former President Donald Trump's case has suspended its activities this week and will reconvene next week.
Multiple press sources, including ABC News, say the grand jury will meet Thursday on another case it is reviewing and is expected to resume the Trump case on Monday.
New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg is also reportedly seeking to bring one additional witness before the grand jury next week.
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Harvard law professor and author Alan Dershowitz told Newsmax on Wednesday that Bragg is likely having "second thoughts" about his criminal case against Trump, and that could be the reason he gave the grand jury off time this week.
Also, Bragg has issued a pointed response to House Republicans' request for documents and testimony, rejecting it as an "unlawful incursion into New York's sovereignty" and unduly going to "interfere with law enforcement investigations."
Bragg issued a letter to three House GOP committee chairs — Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio; Rep. James Comer, R-Ky.; and Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Wis. — responding to his request for testimony and documents, calling the request an "unprecedented inquiry into a pending local prosecution" and telling them to let the legal process work.
"If charges are brought at the conclusion, it will be because the rule of law and faithful execution of the district attorney's duty require it," Bragg claimed.
The office has been investigating $130,000 paid in the final weeks of Trump's 2016 election campaign to Daniels, a porn actor who said she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006 when he was married to his current wife Melania.
Bragg’s decision to probe Trump on his payment to Stormy Daniels as a federal election violation has baffled legal experts. State law enforcement does not review federal crimes, and the Federal Election Commission already reviewed Trump’s payments and declined to pursue the matter.
Trump’s lawyers have stated he paid Daniels to avoid embarrassment to his family and not as a campaign matter.
Trump's former fixer, Michael Cohen, has said he made the payment at Trump's direction to buy her silence. Trump has denied an affair took place.
Cohen went to prison after pleading guilty to federal charges stemming from the payment, but prosecutors in that case did not charge Trump. Manhattan has started and stopped its own investigation into the matter several times.
Concerns remain high that if Bragg does indict and arrest Trump it could raise security worries in Manhattan.
"For security reasons, if I were the Manhattan DA's office, I would be coordinating with law enforcement, with the secret service actually, what day is Trump planning to surrender? On that day that they choose, coordinate with law enforcement how they can keep him safe, and then I would wait until the very last possible minute to seek an indictment before that date," former Manhattan prosecutor Karen Friedman Agnifilo told ABC News.
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Information from Reuters was used in this report.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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