Hi everyone, it's 4 o'clock in New York. Welcome to Monday. We have brand new reporting

on a long, simmering criminal investigation that now appears to be bursting out into the

open again with major consequences for the twice-in-peach disgraced ex-president. The

New York Times is today reporting this, quote, the Manhattan District Attorney's Office

on Monday will begin presenting evidence to a grand jury about Donald Trump's role in

paying hush money to a porn star during his 2016 presidential campaign, laying the

groundwork for potential criminal charges against the former president in the coming months.

That is according to people of knowledge of the matter. The grand jury was recently

impeannled and witnessed testimony will soon begin. It's a clear signal that the DA, Alvin

Bragg, is nearing a decision about whether to charge Trump. The Times describes the Manhattan

DA's decision to see the grand jury as, quote, supercharging the longest running criminal

investigation into Mr. Trump, a probe that began when Donald Trump's former attorney

Michael Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to a host of charges, including campaign finance

violations, for making a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels to pay for her silence ahead

of the 2016 election. It has been a long and winding road to today's breaking news. At

one point last year, the probe, which grew to investigate the business practices of the

Trump org, seemed all but dead with two top prosecutors leaving the DA's office after

DA, Alvin Bragg, stopped presenting evidence to a grand jury. But now, the New York Times

is reporting that the probe is moving again, full speed ahead, quote, on Monday, one of the

witnesses was seen with his lawyer entering the building in Lower Manhattan, where the

grand jury is sitting. That witness, David Pecker, who can forget David Pecker, is the former

publisher of the National Enquirer, the tabloid that helped broker the deal with the porn

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