Trump grumbles about grand jury in criminal probe: ‘No other president has put up with what I have’

Donald Trump has blasted the Manhattan district attorney for convening a grand jury that will decide whether to indict him should prosecutors present the panel with criminal charges.

Mr Trump accused Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance Jr of “being driven by highly partisan Democrat prosecutors” and called the probe a “witch-hunt.”

Two sources close to the investigation revealed to the Washington Post that the grand jury that will meet three days in a week for the next six months, could indict him on criminal tax evasion and other charges related to the Trump Organisation’s business affairs.

In a statement on Tuesday, Mr Trump said: “This is a continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt in American history. It began the day I came down the escalator in Trump Tower, and it’s never stopped.”

“No other president in history has had to put up with what I have had to,” Mr Trump said. He promised to fight “like I have been for the last five years.”

Prosecutors have said that they will look into the former president’s business dealings before his election in 2016 “including whether the Trump Organisation manipulated the value of real estate properties to defraud insurance companies and banks.”

The Washington Post also reported that the district attorney is also “examining the compensation provided to top Trump Organisation executives”.

Mr Trump said: “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.” He added in his statement: “Our country is broken, our elections are rigged, corrupt, and stolen, our prosecutors are politicised.”

Experts have claimed that the move by the district attorney proves that the investigation into Mr Trump and his criminal charges has progressed.

Rebecca Roiphe, former Manhattan assistant district attorney who is now a professor at New York Law School, told the Washington Post that the “recent step of seating a long-term panel shows that Vance’s investigation has progressed to the point that prosecutors will visit the grand jury, present evidence and witnesses, and potentially ask that charges be considered.”

Mr Vance Jr’s criminal investigation against the former Republican president began in 2018.

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