Former President Donald Trump is claiming that prosecutors in New York are conducting a “witch hunt” amid news that a grand jury has been convened by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance.
In a statement on Tuesday night on his website, Trump wrote, “This is a continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt in American history. It began the day I came down the escalator in Trump Tower, and it’s never stopped. They wasted two years and $48 million in taxpayer dollars on Mueller and Russia Russia Russia, Impeachment Hoax #1, Impeachment Hoax #2, and it continues to this day, with illegally leaked confidential information.”
Trump routinely called former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether members of the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to swing the 2016 election a “witch hunt.”
Mueller’s report said investigators could not find evidence to establish a conspiracy to swing the election. However, “[A] statement that the investigation did not establish particular facts does not mean there was no evidence of those facts.”
Trump continued, “This is purely political, and an affront to the almost 75 million voters who supported me in the Presidential Election, and it’s being driven by highly partisan Democrat prosecutors.”
He went on to claim that New York City and the state are “suffering the highest crime rates in their history” but decided to “come after Donald Trump” instead of “going after murderers, drug dealers, human traffickers, and others.”
He added, “Our Country is broken, our elections are rigged, corrupt, and stolen, our prosecutors are politicized, and I will just have to keep on fighting like I have been for the last five years!”
Trump’s statement comes after it was reported that Vance convened a grand jury in his probe into the Trump Organization. Vance is reportedly probing Trump’s business practices before he became president to determine whether he manipulated the values of his properties and committed bank or insurance fraud.
The Washington Post notes the grand jury will decide whether to indict Trump or his associates if Vance presents criminal charges.
Additionally, it is believed that the decision to convene a grand jury means that Vance has found evidence of wrongdoing by Trump, his associates, or his company.
News of the grand jury also comes roughly a week after New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) announced that the state’s investigation into the Trump Organization is “no longer purely civil in nature.”
“We are now actively investigating the Trump Organization in a criminal capacity, along with the Manhattan DA. We have no additional comment,” James’ office said in a statement.
