By MICHAEL R. SISAK and ERIC TUCKER
Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) -- The Manhattan grand jury investigating Donald Trump over hush money payments met on other matters Thursday, further delaying a vote on whether or not to indict the former president, according to a person familiar with the matter.
There was no immediate explanation from prosecutors about why the grand jury was not taking up the Trump matter during its scheduled Thursday session after not meeting at all on Wednesday. There also was no word on when or if prosecutors might resume presenting evidence or ask for a decision on bringing historic criminal charges.
The panel is an investigative grand jury, meaning it hears other cases beyond the one focused on hush money paid on Trump's behalf during the 2016 presidential campaign to a porn actor who says she had a sexual encounter with him years earlier.
Even so, the grand jury's pause on Trump -- confirmed by a person who was not authorized to discuss the proceedings and who spoke on condition of anonymity -- has given an opening to the former president and supporters to claim the investigation is somehow stalled.
In keeping with the secret nature of the grand jury process, prosecutors also on Thursday rebuffed a request from House Republicans for records and testimony on the investigation, a request that the general counsel to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg called an "unlawful incursion into New York's sovereignty."
The prosecutors said Trump had created "a false expectation" about being arrested, and they offered no update on the timing for any possible. action.
Grand jury proceedings are closed to the pubic and the media, with prosecutors prevented by law from sharing any details of what takes place. But these proceedings have captivated public attention, each development magnified because the presumed target is a former president and because Trump himself said last weekend he expected to be arrested on Tuesday.
The limited snapshots of the investigation have largely come from witnesses and their attorneys, who don't share the same secrecy obligation. Michael Cohen, Trump's former lawyer and fixer and a key government witness in this case, has spoken publicly about his appearances, as has another recent witness, Robert Costello, an attorney who presented testimony aimed at undermining Cohen's credibility.
A police officer walks with a K-9 in front the courthouse ahead of former President Donald Trump's anticipated indictment on Thursday, March 23, 2023, in New York. A New York grand jury investigating Trump over a hush money payment to a porn star appears poised to complete its work soon as law enforcement officials make preparations for possible unrest in the event of an indictment. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)