Likelihood of Trump Indictment in Manhattan Fades as Grand Jury Wraps Up

At a court hearing on Monday a lawyer from her office said that the attorney general would probably take action against the former president in the near future. Because her investigation is civil, Ms. James can bring a lawsuit, but not criminal charges.

At that hearing, a judge held Mr. Trump in contempt of court for failing to fully comply with a subpoena for records from Ms. James. And on Friday, despite Mr. Trump’s lawyers having filed documents that they said brought him into compliance with the subpoena, the judge declined to withdraw the contempt order, which is costing Mr. Trump $10,000 a day.

Mr. Trump has long denied wrongdoing and accused Ms. James and Mr. Bragg, both of whom are Black and Democrats, of being politically motivated “racists.” If he ultimately is sued or indicted, his lawyers would be likely to point toward the disclaimer that his financial statements were not audited by his accountants and that they were submitted to sophisticated financial institutions that conducted their own due diligence.

Mr. Bragg’s office is monitoring Ms. James’s civil investigation for potential new leads, he has said. And Ms. James’s office is participating in the district attorney’s criminal investigation, opened by Mr. Bragg’s predecessor, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., more than three years ago.

In December, Mr. Vance directed the two senior prosecutors leading the criminal inquiry, Mark F. Pomerantz and Carey R. Dunne, to present evidence to a grand jury with the goal of seeking an indictment of Mr. Trump.

But when Mr. Bragg took office this year, he and several of his aides raised concerns about the strength of the case, questioning whether they could prove that Mr. Trump intended to break the law. Other prosecutors in the office had raised similar concerns, people with knowledge of the matter said. In the final months of Mr. Vance’s tenure, three assistant district attorneys stopped working on the investigation, concerned about how rapidly it was proceeding and what they felt were gaps in the evidence against the former president.

Mr. Bragg eventually decided to halt the grand jury presentation, prompting the departure of Mr. Dunne and Mr. Pomerantz, who stated in his resignation letter that he believed Mr. Trump was “guilty of numerous felonies.”