Transcript for Grand jury in Trump case will not meet for the rest of the week
- Sources now telling ABC News the grand jury weighing potential charges against former President Trump will not meet on that matter for the rest of the week. New York prosecutors have presented their case on Trump's role in a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election. Now they could be close to deciding whether to indict a former President for the first time in history.
Senior investigative reporter Aaron Katersky joins me live outside the court in Manhattan, along with ABC News legal contributor Kimberly Wehle for more on this. Aaron, I want to start with you. The grand jury is meeting today, but not on this case. This week has been a bit of a seesaw on expectations of what's happening here. So what's the latest? And when might we actually get a decision?
- A lot of those expectations, Diane, came because of Trump himself and his social media post over the weekend saying that he would be arrested by now. The grand jury, as you say, is meeting here at court but they are meeting on a different case. And that's not unusual-- grand juries typically consider evidence in multiple cases at a time. This grand jury has been sitting since January and will all the way until June. So they will hear a number of different cases.
The next time they are expected to consider evidence in the Trump case, as it relates to hush money paid to Stormy Daniels, we believe to be on Monday. So that would be the next chance for a potential indictment.
- Now, Kim, it's not uncommon for a grand jury to hear more than one case at a time. But can they move this one up the priority list a little bit? We want an answer here.
- Well it's hard to know where the leak came from that this is even coming down the pike. As Aaron, said the former President has been getting very excited about this. It's prompted some supporters in the GOP sent a letter to Alvin Bragg wanting to call him in before Congress about a hypothetical possible indictment. We all have to just exhale a little bit and see how this is going to unfold.
There are five different criminal investigations ongoing of the former President. Three at the federal level, one in New York-- this one. And then in Georgia, I think there will be indictments at some point. And given the stakes-- not just for the former President, for the history of the presidency in America, but for democracy itself-- I think we have to hope that these prosecutors are being extremely careful and meticulous, which I believe is what's going on in this moment.
- Aaron, Meanwhile, Trump is also trying to block one of his attorneys from testifying before the special counsel investigating his handling of classified materials. What's the latest there?
- A federal appeals court denied that attempt. Trump does not want his attorney, Evan Corcoran, to be forced to give over materials and testimony to a grand jury as part of the special counsel's investigation into how Trump handled classified materials after he left the White House.
The district court judge said that prosecutors had come up with some pretty good preliminary evidence that Trump was part of a criminal scheme to lie to his lawyer about documents that may have been in his possession in Florida. And so the district judge said it would be appropriate to pierce attorney client privilege and have that lawyer come in to testify before the grand jury.
Trump appealed, but the US District Court for the District of Columbia denied the appeal. So there's a possibility of a last ditch attempt to go to the US Supreme Court. But absent that, Corcoran could testify as soon as tomorrow.
- Now, Kim, sources are also telling ABC News that prosecutors for the special counsel say Trump deliberately misled his own attorneys about his handling of classified information. Did that open the door for Corcoran's testimony? What happens with attorney client privilege here?
- Yeah, attorney client privilege is normally pretty bulletproof. That is, the idea is we want lawyers and clients to candidly share information. So it's very hard to pierce that. This is a rare occurrence. Essentially, the way the law works is say, we don't want to have lawyers and clients talk to each other about how to commit crimes. So it can't be, where should I bury the body? You can't ask your lawyer that and have that be protected.
And I think, here, the judge found there was sufficient evidence that perhaps there were communications between the former President and his lawyers about how to hide the fact that they had classified information from the FBI. Because in June, there was a certification by one of his lawyers that they had given everything over. And then in August, they found additional documents.
So someone wasn't telling the truth. And this story, this case, is less about classified information being taken out of the White House in this moment and more about obstruction of justice. And this is not the first time. I mean, back to the Mueller Report, this is not the first time Donald Trump has been accused or there's been evidence supporting the idea that this is a person that doesn't have a problem with thwarting the law, or trying to get around the law. And that's illegal because we need a criminal justice system that functions smoothly in this country.
- All right. Kimberly Wehle. Aaron Katersky. Thank you both.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.