Donald Trump has been invited to testify to a grand jury about his involvement in hush money paid to Stormy Daniels, and, despite the circumstances, Seth Meyers is pretty sure Trump was thrilled — if only because it was the twice-impeached former president’s first invite back to a New York event in some time.
According to the New York Times on Thursday, Trump was invited to testify before a Manhattan Grand jury, signaling that an indictment may be pretty imminent in this investigation.
“And despite everything, Trump was still excited to get invited to something in New York again,” Meyers joked, before imitating what he predicted Trump’s exact response was. “‘I’m back baby. Any word from the Met Ball? Have they reached out?’”
In case you’ve forgotten –this has been a nearly five-year inquiry, after all — this particular investigation of Trump stems from a $130,000 payment made near the end of his 2016 presidential campaign to Stormy Daniels, an adult film star who said she had an affair with him.
Though the payment itself came from Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, he was later reimbursed by the twice-impeached former president from the White House, and has testified repeatedly that Trump instructed him to pay off Daniels to keep her quiet about the affair.
During Friday morning’s episode of “The View,” host and former federal prosecutor Sunny Hostin broke down what this invite means, for those who aren’t as familiar with legal proceedings.
“The only time you really invite someone to testify in front of a grand jury is because you’ve already heard from a bunch of witnesses, that person has now become the target of the grand jury’s investigation and they get a nice little letter,” Hostin explained.
“It’s called a target letter. It scares the hell out of everybody,” she continued. “And it says you are the target of a grand jury investigation, but we’re going to give you the opportunity to come and testify. No one ever comes and testifies. And then the grand jury votes and then they show up in court. It’s the beginning of the criminal proceedings.”
To Hostin’s point — and following in Trump’s typical habit of ignoring requests from courts — the twice-impeached former president indeed won’t be testifying in Manhattan.
You can watch Meyers’ full monologue in the video above.
