NEW YORK — Donald Trump faces new legal jeopardy after Manhattan prosecutors convened a state grand jury to investigate any role he may have played in making hush-money payments to a porn star on the eve of the 2016 election.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office was to begin presenting evidence to the grand jury Monday, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because it isn’t public.

Bragg has been investigating whether Trump and his company falsified records to conceal the payments to pornographic film actor Stormy Daniels, intended to keep her from going public about her alleged affair with Trump. Trump has denied the affair.

The empaneling of a grand jury is a major escalation of Bragg’s probe of Trump’s activities, reviving a line of inquiry that appeared to take a back seat as the DA focused instead on tax violations at the Trump Organization. That investigation resulted in a guilty plea from the company’s longtime chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, and the conviction of two Trump business units.

The empaneling was reported earlier by The New York Times.

‘Radical Left’ DA

In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said the new probe was the work of a “Radical Left Manhattan D.A.” who is still going after the Daniels “Bull ... !”

Danielle Filson, a spokeswoman for Bragg, declined to comment on the investigation.

The probe comes shortly after Georgia’s special grand jury investigating Trump’s effort to overturn that state’s 2020 election results wrapped up its work, with the results imminent.

Meanwhile, Trump faces a criminal investigation of his handling of classified documents and a $250 million civil suit against the Trump Organization by New York Attorney General Letitia James, like Bragg a Democrat. The AG claims Trump and three of his children inflated the value of the family firm’s assets and is seeking penalties including a permanent ban on the four running companies in the state.

...continued

©2023 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.