NEW YORK (AP) — Law enforcement officers in New York are making safety preparations for the chance that Donald Trump could possibly be indicted within the coming weeks by a Manhattan grand jury and seem in a courtroom in an investigation inspecting hush cash paid to ladies who alleged sexual encounters with the previous president, 4 regulation enforcement officers stated Friday.

There has been no public announcement of any timeframe for the grand jury’s secret work, together with any potential vote on whether or not to indict the ex-president.

The regulation enforcement officers, who weren’t licensed to talk publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on situation of anonymity, stated authorities are simply making ready in case of an indictment. They described the conversations as preliminary and are contemplating safety, planning and the practicalities of a possible court docket look by a former president.

Trump’s lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, had no remark. Messages had been left for prosecutors and court docket directors.

The grand jury has been listening to from witnesses including former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, who says he orchestrated funds in 2016 to 2 ladies to silence them about sexual encounters they stated they’d with Trump a decade earlier. Trump denies the encounters occurred, says he did nothing flawed and has forged the investigation as a “witch hunt” by a Democratic prosecutor bent on sabotaging the Republican’s 2024 presidential marketing campaign.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s workplace has apparently been inspecting whether or not any state legal guidelines had been damaged in reference to the funds or the way in which Trump’s firm compensated Cohen for his work to maintain the ladies’s allegations quiet.

Cohen has stated that at Trump’s path, he organized funds totaling $280,000 to porn actor Stormy Daniels and Playboy mannequin Karen McDougal. According to Cohen, the payouts had been to purchase their silence about Trump, who was then within the thick of his first presidential marketing campaign.

Cohen and federal prosecutors stated the corporate paid him $420,000 to reimburse him for the $130,000 cost to Daniels and to cowl bonuses and different supposed bills. The firm labeled these funds internally as authorized bills.

Federal prosecutors in 2018 charged Cohen with marketing campaign finance crimes, saying the funds to Daniels and McDougal amounted to impermissible, unrecorded items to Trump’s election effort.

Cohen pleaded guilty, served prison time and was disbarred. Federal prosecutors by no means charged Trump with any crime.

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