THE CALM BEFORE STORMY OF 'DON BUST'
Bracing for arrest as grand jury nears its end
The Manhattan grand jury weighing whether to indict Donald Trump began wrapping up its work Monday with final witnesses, as the former president prepared to be arrested and lawenforcement officials geared up for the possible fallout.
Robert Costello, a lawyer loyal to Trump, appeared before the jury mid-afternoon and may be the one of the last witnesses in the closeddoor proceeding, sources said. Disgraced former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen was at the courthouse to offer a “rebuttal,” but his testimony was not needed, he told The Post.
At issue is whether Trump, 76, directed Cohen to secretly pay hush money in 2016 to porn star Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet about her and the then-presidential candidate’s alleged affair.
All signs were pointing to Trump being indicted in the upcoming days, with even the ex-commander-in-chief predicting he would be arrested as early as Tuesday.
Federal and local authorities such as the US Secret Service and NYPD held a conference call to talk about security and the handling of an indictment of Trump, including how his actual arrest might be dealt with, ABC News reported.
Law-enforcement sources said Monday all cops were told they have to report to the job in uniform Tuesday at 7 a.m. Court officers added that traffic around the courthouse was being “restricted’’ Tuesday.
Experts said an indictment would hardly be surprising.
“Otherwise, I would have expected very different messaging from the district attorney’s office,’’ said former Manhattan federal prosecutor Sarah Krissoff of
Day Pitney LLP, referring to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s defiant public comments.
Witness calls out Cohen
A source close to Trump told The Post on Monday that if an indictment comes down, “Trump would surrender in Florida and fly to New York to be arraigned.’’
Trump would have to appear in Manhattan court in person.
“We are not doing criminal cases, including arraignments, virtually,” a state courts rep said.
A source told Fox News local law enforcement does not expect an arraignment until next week because another grand-jury witness is expected to testify Wednesday.
Costello became part of the case after the FBI raided Cohen’s Manhattan pad and office in 2018. He split from Cohen when he realized Trump’s former lawyer had turned against The Donald.
Prosecutors with Bragg’s office asked Costello to testify before the grand jury after he came forward claiming he had information challenging Cohen’s credibility, sources told The Associated Press.
Costello told reporters following his more than two hours of testimony that Cohen said he had masterminded the hush-money agreement all by himself.
“The heart of it is that Michael Cohen told us that he was approached by Stormy Daniels’ lawyer and Stormy Daniels had negative information that she wanted to put in a lawsuit against Trump,’’ Costello said. “So Michael Cohen decided on his own, that’s what he told us, on his own to see if he could take care of this.”
Costello said Cohen told him he drew up the payment agreement with Daniels’ lawyers and used a loan to cover it, saying he “wanted to keep this secret, even secret’’ from his wife.
Cohen claims Trump directed him to make the $130,000 payout to Daniels and aimed to cover it up.
Cohen — who has already testified before the grand jury — said he paid Daniels personally but was reimbursed by the Trump Organization under the guise of legal expenses, prompting federal prosecutors to say the dough was falsely accounted for.
Authorities have said the money was essentially an illegal, undocumented “gift’’ to Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Cohen pleaded guilty to federal charges for his role in the case and other crimes in 2018 and served a little more than three years behind bars.
The question for the grand jury is whether the crime of falsifying business records was done in the commission of another crime, the alleged campaign-finance violation, The New York Times has reported. That would be a “low level” felony and Trump could face up to four years behind bars if found guilty.