曼哈顿地区检察官办公室召集了一个特别大陪审团，该陪审团可以决定是否对前总统提起公诉唐纳德·特朗普或他的同名公司，知情人士告诉美国广播公司新闻。

到目前为止，检察官一直在使用以前选定的大陪审团来发出传票和收集证据调查这已经持续了两年多的时间。大陪审团每次只开庭几个月，而特别大陪审团的开庭时间更长。

组成一个特别大陪审团表明该案件已经进入高级阶段，但迄今为止还没有提出任何指控。

消息人士告诉美国广播公司新闻，最近几周已经联系了潜在证人，要求他们在特别大陪审团面前出庭。

乔纳森·恩斯特/路透社，档案

唐纳德·特朗普总统在佐治亚州瓦尔多斯塔的一次活动中观看。，2020年12月5日。

华盛顿邮报首先报道了特别大陪审团的存在。

曼哈顿地区检察官赛·万斯根据迈克尔·科恩的国会证词开始调查特朗普的商业行为，他是前总统的私人律师和调解人。

消息人士告诉美国广播公司新闻，调查的焦点之一包括特朗普是否夸大了某些房产的价值以获得银行贷款，并缩小了这些房产的价值以支付更低的税收。

万斯曾两次向美国最高法院争取获得价值八年的特朗普个人和企业纳税申报表。

特朗普在周二晚间的一份声明中表示:“这是美国历史上最大的政治迫害的延续。”。“这纯粹是政治行为，是对在总统选举中支持我的近7500万选民的侮辱，这是由高度党派化的民主党检察官推动的。”

Manhattan district attorney convenes special grand jury in Trump probe: Sources

The Manhattan District Attorney's office has convened a special grand jury that could decide whether an indictment is warranted against former PresidentDonald Trumpor his eponymous company, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.

Until now, prosecutors have been using previously empaneled grand juries to issue subpoenas and gather evidence in aninvestigationthat has spanned the better part of two years. Grand juries only sit for a few months at a time, while a special grand jury sits for a longer period of time.

Empaneling a special grand jury suggests the case has reached an advanced stage, but as yet there have been no charges filed.

Potential witnesses have been contacted in recent weeks about appearing before the special grand jury, the sources told ABC News.

Word of the special grand jury's existence was first by the Washington Post.

Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance began investigating Trump's business practices based on the congressional testimony of Michael Cohen, who served as the former president's personal attorney and fixer.

One focus of the investigation includes whether Trump inflated the value of certain properties to obtain bank loans and deflated the value of those same properties to pay lower taxes, sources have told ABC News.

Vance has twice fought all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to gain access to eight years' worth of Trump's personal and business tax returns.

"This is a continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt in American history," Trump said in a statement late Tuesday. "This is purely political, and an affront to the almost 75 million voters who supported me in the Presidential Election, and it's being driven by highly partisan Democrat prosecutors."