Former Trump attorney Cohen to testify before NY grand jury in porn star hush money probe

Trump attorney Joseph Tacopina confirmed the prosecutor's offer to Trump to testify Thursday as a decision loomed on whether to bring criminal charges against the former president.

“To me, it’s much ado about nothing,” Tacopina told The Associated Press, adding he didn’t think prosecutors had committed “one way or another” on a decision on whether to charge Trump. Tacopina did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday about Cohen that was left with his answering service. Another Trump lawyer, Ronald Fischetti, also did not immediately return a message left on his answering machine.

A spokesperson for Manhattan District Attorney Alan Bragg declined to comment Thursday about the invitation to Trump. Two DA's office spokespeople did not respond late Friday when asked for comment about Cohen's testimony.

Trump has fired back at the apparent escalation in the case, calling the district attorney's action to invite him to testify "simply insane."

"For the past five years, the DA’s office has been on a Witch Hunt, investigating every aspect of President Trump‘s life, and they’ve come up empty at every turn – and now this," the campaign said in a statement. "The fact that after their intensive investigation the DA is even considering a new political attack is a clear exoneration of President Trump in all areas."

Trump later issued a personal statement regarding the invitation for him to testify, saying that he did "absolutely nothing wrong" and that the attorney general's action was an attempt to take down the "leading" Republican candidate in the 2024 presidential election.

He did not indicate whether he would testify before the Manhattan grand jury.

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Late last year, Bragg's office injected new life into the long-running investigation that appeared to be stalled after the resignations of two prosecutors leading the criminal investigation.

Authorities had been investigating the 2016 payment to Daniels, which former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen has described as falsely disguised as a legal expense to aid the former president's campaign.

Cohen has met multiple time with New York prosecutors involved in the investigation.

In December, Bragg appointed former Justice Department official Matthew Colangelo, a former acting associate attorney general, as a senior counsel to focus on high-profile white-collar investigations, among other priorities.

At the time, Bragg did not specifically refer to the Trump investigation but underscored Colangelo's "sound judgment and integrity needed to pursue justice against powerful people and institutions when they abuse their power."

Within days of the Colangelo appointment, Bragg notched an important victory in a separate case when a Manhattan jury convicted two Trump companies on all charges in a criminal tax fraud scheme.

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Though Trump was not charged in the case and did not appear in the courtroom during the trial, the former president's namesake Trump Corporation and the Trump Payroll Corporation were found guilty on charges that included conspiracy, a scheme to defraud and criminal tax fraud. The companies faced maximum penalties of $1.6 million.

Bragg characterized the verdicts as "consequential," and, invoking the slogan he has attached to the office, "underscores that here in Manhattan we have one standard of justice for all."

In Georgia, authorities also were moving closer to a decision on whether to bring criminal charges against Trump and his allies in a wide-ranging investigation into interference in the 2020 presidential election.

Atlanta-area District Attorney Fani Willis, a Democrat, is considering a range of possible crimes, from solicitation of election fraud and false statements to conspiracy, oath of office violations, racketeering, and violence associated with election-related threats.

Trump also is the focus of a Justice Department special inquiry examining the former president's involvement in interfering with the transfer of power after President Joe Biden's 2020 election victory and the unauthorized retention of classified documents at his Florida estate.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Former Trump attorney Cohen to testify in porn star hush money probe