Igor Derysh, Salon

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who declined to charge Trump in connection to the tax fraud violations by his company, has begun presenting evidence to a newly impaneled grand jury related to the alleged $130,000 hush money payment. Prosecutors have begun to interview witnesses to determine whether they will seek to charge Trump with misclassifying the cash as legal expenses to cover up a violation of New York state election law by paying Daniels during the campaign. Trump has denied that he had an affair with Daniels and the hush money payment but his longtime former fixer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to federal charges in connection with the scheme, which he said was at the direction of Trump.

Trump lashed out over the renewed probe on Truth Social, claiming that the statute of limitations had run out on the 2016 allegations, though legal experts say Bragg has a strong case that the statute of limitations was tolled while Trump was mostly out of the state during his presidency.

"With respect to the 'Stormy' nonsense, it is VERY OLD & happened a long time ago, long past the very publicly known & accepted deadline of the Statute of Limitations. I placed full Reliance on the JUDGEMENT & ADVICE OF COUNCIL [sic], who I had every reason to believe had a license to practice law, was competent, & was able to appropriately provide solid legal services," Trump wrote, referring to Cohen. "He came from a good law firm, represented other clients over the years, & there was NO reason not to rely on him, and I did."...

The grand jury was recently impaneled and District Attorney Alvin Bragg appears to be "laying the groundwork for potential criminal charges against the former president in the coming months," sources told the outlet.

David Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer who helped broker the deal with Daniels, was seen entering the building where the grand jury is sitting on Monday.

Former Trump attorney and fixer Michael Cohen, who pleaded guilty to federal charges related to the hush money payment "in coordination with, and at the direction of" Trump in 2018, has said he has repeatedly spoken with prosecutors....

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday was pulled away to be briefed on the state's second mass killing in three days while meeting with victims of the first one.

Newsom met with victims of a weekend mass shooting at a Monterey Park ballroom dance hall, where police say 72-year-old Huu Can Tran killed 11 and injured nine others before he was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Newsom's meeting was interrupted by shootings in Half Moon Bay, where seven Chinese farmworkers were killed in two separate locations, according to NBC Bay Area. 67-year-old Half Moon Bay resident Chunli Zhao, who was a worker at one of the facilities and knew at least some of the victims, was arrested in the shooting, according to the Associated Press.

Newsom while meeting with victims of the Monterey Park shooting called out Fox News, accusing the right-wing network of "not doing a damn thing about gun safety, not a damn thing for decades."...

A "wide-ranging" subpoena sent to Trump campaign officials last month shows that special counsel Jack Smith's Jan. 6 investigation is increasingly focused on new areas of interest, including fundraising efforts and potential efforts to influence witness testimony, according to The Washington Post.

The DOJ issued the four-page subpoena to multiple Trump campaign officials in early December, seeking more than "two dozen categories of information," according to the report. One part of the subpoena asks Trump campaign officials if anyone paid for their legal representation and paperwork related to any such agreement.

The subpoena also seeks "all documents and communications" related to Trump's fundraising activities for a litany of groups outside of his Save America PAC, which has already come under scrutiny. The new subpoenas seek documents related to the Make America Great Again PAC, the Save America Joint Fundraising Committee and the Trump Make America Great Again Committee, including documents related to the "formation, funding and/or use of money" of the groups....

A federal judge on Wednesday ordered former President Donald Trump's lawyers to turn over names of private investigators who searched Trump's properties last month for additional classified documents, according to The New York Times.

Chief Judge Beryl Howell of the Federal District Court in Washington issued an order siding with the Justice Department, which is looking to question the investigators about the search.

The November search, which turned up at least two additional documents marked classified at a storage unit near Mar-a-Lago, was conducted months after the FBI seized about 100 documents marked classified from the president's residence in August....