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Surprise Witness Coming In Trump Case On Monday in Manhattan

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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.


It appears the indictment of former President Donald Trump by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is not a done deal.

The grand jury in the case is set to hear from a surprise witness on Monday before Bragg decides whether or not he will indict,” Insider reported, noting further:

“There is one more witness,” a source with knowledge of the investigation told Insider on Saturday night.

The source spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to divulge details of the grand jury proceedings.

The source declined to identify the witness, whose testimony will cap a two-month grand jury presentation by prosecutors under District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

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A separate source, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, told Insider that the witness is not Allen Weisselberg, Trump’s former CFO, who is serving a five-month sentence for admittedly masterminding a payroll tax-dodge scheme at the Trump Organization.

Speaker of the House and Republican California Rep. Kevin McCarthy just dropped a bomb on the people who want to indict former President Donald Trump, including Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg.

“Here we go again — an outrageous abuse of power by a radical DA who lets violent criminals walk as he pursues political vengeance against President Trump. I’m directing relevant committees to immediately investigate if federal funds are being used to subvert our democracy by interfering in elections with politically motivated prosecutions,” he said on Saturday.

It comes as news that the Manhattan DA is planning to indict the former president, who believes it will happen on Tuesday.

He posted an all caps message on his TruthSocial platform calling for protests if he is arrested, which he believes will happen on Tuesday.

“NOW ILLEGAL LEAKS FROM A CORRUPT & HIGHLY POLITICAL MANHATTAN DISTRICT ATTORNEYS OFFICE, WHICH HAS ALLOWED NEW RECORDS TO BE SET IN VIOLENT CRIME & WHOSE LEADER IS FUNDED BY GEORGE SOROS, INDICATE THAT, WITH NO CRIME BEING ABLE TO BE PROVEN, & BASED ON AN OLD & FULLY DEBUNKED (BY NUMEROUS OTHER PROSECUTORS!) FAIRYTALE, THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE & FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK. PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!” he said.

What could be an interesting situation in the entire episode is if former President Trump decided to fight extradition from Florida to New York.

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In that case, ultimately the person who would have to sign the papers that allow him to be extradited would be Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has not announced his candidacy for President of the United States but who has been polling neck and neck with Trump.

But there is no legal way for Gov. DeSantis to stop to the extradition of the former president, Insider reported.

“The indictment and the charges are not going to go away,” Florida attorney Tamara Holder said to Insider. “This is an early stage of a criminal proceeding, and it’s very important that you present yourself to the court early on as somebody who’s going to fight the case and not fight the extradition.”

“The governor doesn’t have the power to stop an extradition,” she said. “The governor’s only involvement is to look at the papers and make sure that the papers are proper to issue the warrant.”

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Former Palm Beach prosecutor Dave Aronberg said something similar in an interview with CNN in 2021.

“The governor’s power to stop an extradition is really nonexistent,” he said. “He can try to delay it, he can send it to a committee and do research about it, but his role is really ministerial, and ultimately the state of New York can go to court and get an order to extradite the former president.”

“If there’s a fully voted indictment, they’re not gonna start investigating the underlying facts of the indictment to determine whether it was sufficient or not,” New York attorney Michael Bachner said. “Once there’s an indictment voted, it would be shocking that a judge would not order extradition. Trump knows that.”

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