CNN takes a closer look at the legal drama surrounding Donald Trump. Watch “CNN Primetime: Inside the Trump Investigations” Tuesday, March 21 at 9 p.m. ET.
While the country anticipates the first-ever indictment of a former president – assuming Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charges Donald Trump with a crime – it’s worth looking at the mechanics of what’s going on in the legal system and how the process that applies to everyone is being applied to Trump.
It’s hard enough to keep track of all the cases involving Trump:
- Bragg is looking at a payment back in 2016 to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels.
- Fulton County prosecutors in Georgia are looking at Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election results there.
- A Department of Justice special counsel is looking at both the election meddling and his treatment of classified documents.
One thing that ties all those investigations together – regarding hush money, election meddling and the documents – is that all three have been or are being presented to a grand jury.
You’ll recall the foreperson for the special grand jury in Georgia spoke to CNN and other news outlets last month. She drew some criticism from legal watchers that she publicly discussed the broad outlines of evidence – but also made clear that it is a grand jury of regular people who must agree with prosecutors that there is enough evidence to bring a case.
The old adage, meant to expose the one-sided grand jury portion of the judicial process, is that a prosecutor could get a grand jury to “indict a ham sandwich.” It’s just that easy.
That turn of phrase has long been attributed, perhaps inaccurately, to the former chief judge of New York’s Court of Appeals, Sol Wachtler. If you’re watching the coverage of a possible Trump indictment, trust me, someone will repeat…
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