That means there’s a group of regular New Yorkers meeting several days a week in a jury room to consider potential criminal charges against the former president, his company or business associates.
Trump in a statement Tuesday attacked the move by Vance’s office as a “Witch Hunt.”
“This is purely political, and an affront to the almost 75 million voters who supported me in the Presidential Election, and it’s being driven by highly partisan Democrat prosecutors,” Trump said.
What does a grand jury do?
A grand jury isn’t the same as a trial jury. Jurors aren’t sitting in a courtroom as lawyers on two sides of a case present arguments, and it’s not their job to determine whether someone is innocent or guilty.
Instead, a grand jury is convened as a tool for prosecutors to bring an indictment against a defendant — and in this case, it would seem Vance has evidence of a crime against Trump, someone close to him or his company. Prosecutors don’t usually move investigations to the grand jury stage unless they have compelling evidence of a crime.
It’s a process that generally favors prosecutors because jurors hear only what the prosecutor wants them to. There is no cross-examination by defense lawyers, no mitigating factors presented — and innocence or guilt is ultimately determined in trial court. And the secrecy of the process protects prosecutors, too, by taking the decision to charge someone out of their hands.
While Trump says the grand jury investigation is a political attack, the whole point of a grand jury is to take politics out of the process. The grand jury process makes indictments the decision of a jury of citizens, rather than prosecutors themselves. It’s also done behind closed doors; jurors are sworn to secrecy, witnesses can make statements to the jury without fear of retaliation from the party being investigated, and if no charges are brought, in theory, the reputation of the person being investigated is protected because the proceedings are never made public, and jurors have taken an oath not to talk about them.
But this is a ‘special’ grand jury?
In this case, though, the world is now aware of the grand jury. And this isn’t a regular grand jury; it’s a special grand jury. That means it will convene three days a week for six months — far longer than a normal grand jury in New York, which usually serves for a period ranging from two weeks to three months.
In New York, a grand jury comprises at least 23 citizens; at least 16 have to be present to consider charges, and it takes 12 jurors to formally charge someone with a crime.
It can be a long, boring and tiring process for jurors, who often spend long hours in the jury room and can’t talk about the proceedings anywhere else. In most cases, electronic devices aren’t allowed — so no surfing Twitter.
The jury is allowed to ask questions. Legal questions are directed at the presiding judge or the prosecutor. But the jury can also question witnesses, usually by submitting queries to the prosecutor, who makes sure they are “relevant and legally proper,” according to the New York grand juror’s handbook.
Could Trump defend himself before the jury decides on charges?
Often, people being accused in such cases aren’t aware they’re the subject of a grand jury investigation. But in some cases, the person being investigated can choose to testify before the grand jury, though they’re not required to. They’re allowed to bring their lawyer — but the lawyer can be present only during their testimony and doesn’t get to sit in on the jury during the rest of the investigation.
That means Trump could, in theory, testify behind closed doors to a grand jury, with his lawyer present. But lawyers in these situations aren’t allowed to ask questions, object to proceedings or address the jury in any way. It would seemingly be a risky gambit to allow Trump — notorious for his long-winded, sometimes ranting defenses of his own conduct — to freely testify before a grand jury and a prosecutor who has been investigating him for several years.
The jury could also ask Vance to call people in Trump’s orbit or those who work for the Trump Organization as witnesses. In that case, testimony becomes compulsory because witnesses are issued a subpoena.
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