How do grand juries work?

Michael Cohen after testifying to Manhattan grand jury

(Image credit: YUKI IWAMURA/AFP via Getty Images)

last updated 31 March 2023

Once it was reported in early March that the Manhattan District Attorney's Office signaled to former President Donald Trump's lawyers that he could soon face criminal charges in connection with a hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, it became a waiting game to see whether the grand jury hearing evidence in the case would vote to indict. (It did.) A grand jury's proceedings are secret, and a different experience compared to a trial jury. Here's everything you need to know:

What is a grand jury?

A grand jury is presented with evidence from a U.S. attorney and determines if there is probable cause to believe an individual has committed a crime and should go on trial. It has investigative powers and can issue subpoenas, with grand jurors serving anywhere between 18 and 36 months. A grand jury is comprised of 16 to 23 members, and only a majority is needed to vote to indict, or charge, the individual. Grand jurors and trial jurors are chosen from the same pool of citizens, identified through public records like voting and Department of Motor Vehicle registries.

During proceedings, there is no presentation of defense evidence or cross-examination of the prosecution's evidence, and only the grand jurors, prosecutors, witnesses, and a court reporter are allowed in the room, CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Elie Honig said. In New York, potential defendants are given the opportunity to answer questions before the grand jury, but rarely do so. The proceedings are secret in order to protect jurors from intimidation, BBC News explains, and to "protect innocent people from unfounded charges."

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Peter Joy, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis, told Voice of America that "the grand jury system is important in terms of deciding who's going to face criminal charges, but it's also important for involving citizens in the criminal justice system." He believes that when "the stakes are high" and a potential defendant is well-known, "the greater likelihood is that the prosecutor really wants to feel that he or she has a solid case, and they're going to want to test out the evidence in a way that would give them increasing confidence in the case that they have," using the grand jury as "a vetting process for that."

The grand jury was impaneled earlier this year by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, and heard testimony from at least nine witnesses, The New York Times reports. The grand jury usually meets on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, but only convenes when summoned by Bragg's office. To conduct business, 16 of the 23 grand jurors must be present, the Times says, and when it came time to vote on an indictment, all of the jurors in attendance had to have previously heard all key witness testimony.

The district attorney's office launched the Trump case in 2018, after Trump's former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to federal campaign finance violations connected to the hush-money payment he made to porn star Stormy Daniels just before the 2016 presidential election. Daniels, who said she had an affair with Trump in 2006, had been open to sharing her story with The National Enquirer, and its publisher, longtime Trump friend David Pecker, and editor, Dylan Howard, worked to broker a deal between Cohen and Daniels' lawyer to keep her from going public.

In November, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Jack Smith as special counsel to oversee two Justice Department inquiries into Trump: one involving his handling of classified documents after he left office and the other looking at his attempts to overturn the 2020 election. In February and March, the special counsel issued several grand jury subpoenas for witnesses close to Trump, including former Vice President Mike Pence and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.