The Manhattan grand jury investigating hush money paid on Donald Trump's behalf is scheduled to consider other matters next week before taking a two-week hiatus, a person familiar with the matter said Wednesday. That means a vote on whether to indict the former president likely wouldn't come until late April at the earliest.
The break, which was scheduled in advance when the panel was convened in January, coincides with Passover, Easter and spring break for the New York City public school system.
The person who confirmed the grand jury's schedule was not authorized to speak publicly about secretive grand jury proceedings and did so on condition of anonymity. A message left with the district attorney's office was not immediately returned.
The grand jury has been meeting regularly Monday and Wednesday afternoons, though its Wednesday sessions were called off this week and last. It met Monday, when a longtime Trump friend and potential key witness in the investigation was seen leaving the building where the grand jury has been meeting.
News earlier this month that Trump had been invited to appear before the grand jury fueled widespread speculation that a vote on an indictment would soon be forthcoming. Trump himself added to that anticipation with a post on his social media platform saying that he expected to be arrested soon, though his representatives later said that they had not received any such indication from prosecutors.
The district attorney's office is legally prohibited from publicly discussing the grand jury process but witnesses and their attorneys aren't bound by the same secrecy rules.
Since Trump's March 18 social media post, authorities ratcheted up security, deploying additional police officers, lining the streets around the courthouse with barricades and dispatching bomb-sniffing dogs.
The grand jury is investigating money paid during Trump's 2016 presidential campaign to two women who alleged that they had extramarital sexual encounters with him. Trump has denied the allegations.
