Twice-impeached former president Donald Trump has been invited to testify to a grand jury about his involvement in hush money paid to Stormy Daniels, and the hosts of “The View” smell blood in the water. On Friday morning, the women delighted in the possibility that, of all the things Trump has done, it may be “one night with a porn star” that gets him criminally charged.
“He still denies the affair and any wrongdoing. But after all the horrible things he’s done on a national and global scale, will it be one night with a porn star that puts him behind bars? Oh, the irony is so delicious,” Behar said with a grin, to kick off the Hot Topics discussion.
The development in this particular investigation came on Thursday, as first reported by the New York Times. So, during Friday’s episode of “The View,” host and former federal prosecutor Sunny Hostin explained exactly what this invite could mean for the case.
“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. 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.”
As the discussion continued, host Sara Haines joked that, of all possible things Trump could be charged for — including, but not limited to, his involvement in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and the classified documents he took (and knowingly withheld from the feds) from the White House — getting indicted for paying hush money to cover up an alleged affair with Stormy Daniels is just funny.
“This like the mafia going down on tax evasion,” she said.
All that said, host Alyssa Farah Griffin was reluctant to be too optimistic just yet, arguing that she’s not confident that this particular charge would stick.
“Listen, I want to see Trump indicted as much as anyone. I’ll throw a watch party when it happens,” Farah Griffin said. “I’m not sure this one sticks. I want whatever the indictment is, and the thing that takes him down, to be something that sticks. At the end of the day, it’s a campaign finance violation, which is wrong, but it’s not something that’s going to put him behind bars for 10 years.”
At that, Hostin chimed in that it could get Trump put in jail for at least four years, which is “pretty good.”
You can watch the full segment from “The View” in the video above.
