The Trump grand jury is taking a weekslong break, clouding when potential charges could be filed against the former president

• The Trump grand jury in Manhattan won't hear the case for nearly a month.
• The break upends expectations about when an indictment might be filed.

The Manhattan grand jury weighing possible criminal charges against former president Donald Trump concering a 2016 a hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels will not take up the case again in the next few weeks, a source familiar with the case told Insider.

The grand jury will not revisit the Trump investigation until the week of April 24 "at the earliest," the source said.

For the rest of this week and next week, the grand jury is expected to hear evidence in an unrelated case and take time off for the upcoming Passover holiday. Politico first reported on the break.

That'll be followed by a two-week hiatus that was already scheduled when the grand jury was first convened by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg earlier this year, a person familiar with the proceedings told Politico.

The planned time-off clouds when a potential indictment against Trump could be filed.

The grand jury sits in secret, and the Manhattan district attorney's office is statutorily barred from discussing its work. A spokeswoman declined to comment on the grand jury's schedule. Trump's attorney Joe Tacopina told Insider he hadn't heard from the DA's office about any break.

Bragg convened the grand jury to probe possible charges against Trump over his alleged role in paying Daniels $130,000 in the days before the 2016 election to keep quiet about an alleged affair with the porn star.

Trump has denied wrongdoing, denied the affair, and derided Bragg's investigation as a "witch hunt."

Former prosecutors previously told Insider that the district attorney does have the power to slow-walk the filing of an indictment and that the grand jury may have already voted.

"It's entirely possible that they have voted already," the source with knowledge of the case told Insider.

If and when an indictment is filed — meaning the grand jury has voted to charge Trump and an indictment signed by its foreperson has been filed with the local clerk's office — Bragg is expected to contact multiple agencies and individuals at approximately the same time.

Those "an indictment has been filed" calls will go out to the Secret Service, the New York Police Department, other law enforcement, and Trump's defense lawyers.

"The Secret Service has been told they will get a heads up" as soon as an indictment is filed, the source said. "That's when the Secret Service will make final plans for how to bring Trump to court. But they're waiting until it's filed."

Grand jury activity has slowed down in the Trump probe

The grand jury investigation has already taken longer than expected.

The Manhattan district attorney's office spent years investigating Trump's finances and won convictions for tax crimes last year against the Trump Organization and executive Allen Weisselberg. In January, it convened the grand jury to hear the hush-money case, which appears to be smaller in scope than a broader financial crimes case that prosecutors had previously examined.

Michael Cohen wired the $130,000 to Daniels' lawyer just two weeks before the 2016 election and pleaded guilty to federal charges related to the scheme in 2018.

Bragg's office extended an offer for Trump to testify three weeks ago, indicating it was nearly finished presenting evidence to the grand jury.

Cohen testified before the Manhattan grand jury on March 13 and 15.

On March 20, Robert Costello, a former legal advisor to Cohen, was allowed to testify in the grand jury on the request of Trump's lawyers, and told grand jurors that Cohen was a liar and couldn't be trusted.

Since then, the grand jury — which typically meets Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday afternoons — has appeared to move in fits and starts.

It took breaks and heard from other cases over the following week. Cohen was not called back as a rebuttal witness, his lawyer Lanny Davis said following Costello's testimony.

For Monday's grand jury session, Bragg's office brought David Pecker, a former media executive who participated in a plot to buy the rights to Daniels's story and keep it under lock and key. Pecker had testified earlier in the case and was brought back to testify again.

Alina Habba, who represents Trump in several civil lawsuits, said the slowing pace of the grand jury signaled the district attorney's case was weak.

"They are bringing repeat witnesses in and it appears the grand jury is not having it," she said in a statement. "It is not normal to take a three week break when you are up against a statute of limitations."

It's also possible that grand jurors already voted on Monday to bring charges against Trump and that its future sessions have no bearing on the ex-president's fate, a law enforcement source said Wednesday.

Former prosecutors told Insider that if grand jurors voted on Monday, Bragg's office can hold off indefinitely on filing them, a delay that would give law enforcement and city officials time to plan for make security arrangements ahead of an indictment being announced and Trump's first appearance in court.

Trump, for his part, has used the delays to proclaim his innocence. He previously said, without any basis, that he would be arrested on March 21 — a day that passed without incident.

In a post on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday, he praised the grand jury, which operates in secret.

"I HAVE GAINED SUCH RESPECT FOR THIS GRAND JURY, & PERHAPS EVEN THE GRAND JURY SYSTEM AS A WHOLE," he wrote in all-caps. "THE EVIDENCE IS SO OVERWHELMING IN MY FAVOR, & SO RIDICULOUSLY BAD FOR THE HIGHLY PARTISAN & HATEFUL DISTRICT ATTORNEY."