A week ago, we detailed for you a sealed grand jury summons that took place under lock and key — court reporters completely shielded from any view of the proceedings and described only as being a possibly major witness in the ongoing Mueller probe.
But that wasn’t the only secret development in the concerted effort between the special counsel and the prosecutors in the Southern District of New York to discover just how far the Trump rabbit hole goes, and now we know a little more about something else they’ve been up to, this time as a direct result of the case involving Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen.
Just a few days before we learned of the grand jury at the DC Court of Appeals, Cohen was sentenced to 3 years in federal prison for, among other crimes, his role in a pair of high-profile campaign finance violations in which he also implicated President Trump.
Since that time, prosecutors have continued their work on that case — but with Cohen already convicted and sentenced, what work could there be left to do? As it turns out, plenty. According to CNBC, a document that was filed during the prosecution of Cohen was removed from the evidence of the case and placed into a sealed vault in the US District Court in Manhattan, home base for the SDNY prosecutors.
Wait, a what? A sealed vault. As in, a place you might keep something that’s intended to be kept safe and secret for an extended period of time — say, until someone isn’t President any longer.
Of course, DC Tribune is no more privy to the contents of that vault than the reporters who were hanging around the DC Court of Appeals hoping to find out what the grand jury summons was for. But assuming that the document is a sealed indictment against the President of the United States makes a lot more sense than almost anything else. There really aren’t any other witnesses whose knowledge of their own peril would cause prosecutors to fear they might flee, destroy evidence, or otherwise jeopardize their case.
What’s more, anyone else involved in the evidence that ended up closing the case on Cohen — like National Enquirer publisher David Pecker — had immunity from prosecution in exchange for testimony. But not Trump, who, again, was implicated in both felony counts of illicit campaign activity.
So does Mueller or the team in NY’s Southern District have charges against Trump locked away in that vault?
I have a feeling we’ll find out very soon.
Featured image via screen capture
