It's no secret what caused the sudden implosion of the once-mighty Silicon Valley Bank, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) wrote Monday in a New York Times op-ed. "We know who is responsible," she declared.

The name of a key person behind the mess starts with a "T" — but he was backed by members of both parties who worked to weaken bank regulations aimed at protecting customers and the nation, Warren argued.

Lawmakers, with a massive push from bank lobbyists, did their best to dismantle what they could of the Dodd-Frank Act enacted after the 2008 financial crisis to avoid a repeat of that disaster, Warren noted. "With support from both parties, President Donald Trump signed a law to roll back critical parts" of the law. "Regulators, including Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, then made a bad situation worse, letting financial institutions load up on risk," she added.

Warren warned at the time that Washington was "about to make it easier for the banks to run up risk, make it easier to put our constituents at risk, make it easier to put American families in danger."

IN OTHER NEWS: Raskin accuses GOP Oversight chairman of coordinating with Trump's lawyers 'to bury evidence'

On Friday, executives of SVB were "busy paying out congratulatory bonuses hours before the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation rushed in to take over their failing institution" — leaving countless businesses with accounts "alarmed that they wouldn’t be able to pay their bills and employees," Warren continued. (SVB CEO Greg Becker, who earned $9.9 million in compensation last year dumped some $3.6 million in stock just days before the bank imploded, Bloomberg reported.)

Federal regulators have announced they would ensure that all deposits at SVB and Signature — an affected bank dissolved by officials Sunday — would be completely repaid.

But Warren's op ed appeared as financial fallout infecting other banks continued to spiral. San Francisco's First Republic Bank stocks plunged some 64% Monday — after dropping 33% last week — and shares at other major banks were down significantly.

Banking laws must be tightened again, banks more carefully regulated, and millions of dollars in compensation to executives of failed banks clawed back, urged Warren.

Now is the time for Washington to "act quickly to prevent the next crisis," she wrote.

Former Vice President Mike Pence has taken a long time to strike out at Donald Trump for placing him in danger at the 2021 Capitol riot — but Pence's advisers convinced him to finally hit hard at his old boss at the Gridiron dinner, they told Politico.

They viewed the event — a white-tie event thrown by journalists in Washington — as an "opportunity" for Pence clearly "amplify" what he has already more quietly expressed: that Trump's baseless rigged election claim, and his firing up of the mob of his supporters who called for Pence to be "hanged," put him and his family in extreme danger.

"Make no mistake about it, what happened that day was a disgrace, and it mocks decency to portray it in any other way," Pence declared at the Gridiron dinner Saturday night. "His reckless words endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day. And I know that history will hold Donald Trump accountable.”

Pence's advisers were convinced that the hard-hitting remarks would begin to forge Pence's profile as a presidential candidate and help "win over his most skeptical audience" — Washington insiders and journalists, who have already largely discounted him in a presidential primary, Politico added.

“This was a different audience for him,” Marc Short, Pence’s former vice presidential chief of staff and his senior adviser, told Politico. And his dangerous experience has landed him in a unique position, said Short.

“Mike is in a different place where he can be sort of free and liberated in ways that I don’t think others in the field are,” Short explained to Politico. “I believe that he’s got a good pathway forward.”

One source noted that Pence has more room to grow — with more of an upside — among Republican primary voters than a rival like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. The governor already has to fill huge expectations as a “combination of Ronald Reagan and Willie Nelson and Bono all wrapped up into one," said the source.

Those close to Pence are working to bring out his warmer, more personable side, according to the report, making sure his campaign events will include things like fireside chats.

He also doesn't want to make the press the enemy, as Trump has. Pence even praised the media in his comments Saturday. “We were able to stay at our post in part because you stayed at your post,” he told reporters at the dinner who covered the Capitol siege. “The American people know what happened that day because you never stopped reporting.”

Pence, who has yet to declare that he's running for the Republican presidential nomination, will next "campaign" in New Hampshire on Thursday and Iowa on Saturday, two early GOP primary states, Politico noted.

If Donald Trump is indicted as early as next week over the Stormy Daniels hush-money payments, it's not only going to be momentous for him, it's also going to be a "come to Jesus" moment for his entire party, a Bloomberg columnist warned Sunday.

It's one thing for many Republicans to secretly oppose Trump while still skating along with him at this point — but it will be another situation entirely if the former president is hit with criminal charges. Republicans will finally be forced to take a stand, wrote Jonathan Bernstein.

"Up to this point, keeping quiet was a viable strategy," Bernstein noted, adding: "Not a very brave one!" Taking on Trump would have "risked alienating voters and party elites who remain steadfast supporters," wrote Bernstein.

"But once there is an indictment, staying neutral is no longer a smart option," he pointed out. "The problem will no longer solve itself."

Whatever Trump’s "countless previous transgressions, a criminal charge is a watershed moment that will be exponentially more difficult for the GOP to dismiss. It also makes more real the possibility of additional indictments on matters more consequential than the potential violation of campaign-finance law likely at issue in the Stormy Daniels case," Bernstein wrote.

"Devout Trump voters will remain in the former president’s corner no matter what," he noted. "But there is a significant segment of the Republican electorate — perhaps up to two-thirds of the total — who seem open to other Republican contenders" — and they'll be looking to their timid leaders for direction, he added.

Even if just a plurality of prominent Republicans "decide to make a public break with Trump, it will still reverberate strongly through the party," wrote Bernstein. Those leaders just have to find the nerve.

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Prosecutors in the seditious conspiracy trial of members of the Proud Boys defended themselves in a court filing Sunday against misconduct claims from defense attorneys.

The Proud Boys' lawyers gleaned their attacks from thousands of FBI emails, many of them inadvertently leaked to the defense by the prosecution, Politico reported. Some of the information accidentally handed over was believed to be classified.

In one exchange, a lead investigator in the case, FBI Special Agent Nicole Miller — who testified for the prosecution last week — discussed with a co-worker learning of defendant Zachary Rehl's plan to go to trial, in part because they viewed messages between Rehl and his attorney at the time. Defense attorneys claimed that it appeared to be a breach of client-attorney confidentiality.

It was one of a handful of other complaints defense lawyers pointed to as part of their demand to re-question Miller on the stand when the trial resumes this week.

Prosecutors went through each issue cited by defense lawyers in an 18-page court filing, arguing that the claims lacked merit — and did not demonstrate any attempt to withhold relevant evidence in the case.

As for Miller allegedly breaching attorney-client privilege, the filing noted: “She did no such thing — both because any privilege was waived and ... no privileged information was passed Special Agent Miller.”

U.S. District Court Judge Tim Kelly paused the trial last week for a day and ordered defense attorneys to refrain from reviewing or disseminating the messages until the FBI was able to conduct a review of the leaked information.

He'll decide Monday whether or not to allow defense attorneys to re-question Miller, according to Politico.

Proud Boys former national chair Enrique Tarrio and four lieutenants of the group stand accused in the case of seditious conspiracy for what prosecutors have characterized as a sophisticated plot to essentially overthrow the U.S government by halting the transfer of power from Donald Trump to presidential victor Joe Biden.

While former Vice President Mike Pence delivered his harshest rebuke to date against Donald Trump for the 2021 insurrection, he did so at a private dinner as he tried to play both sides of the issue, critics charged Sunday.

"Make no mistake about it, what happened that day was a disgrace, and it mocks decency to portray it in any other way," Pence declared Saturday night at the Gridiron dinner, a white-tie event thrown by journalists in Washington.

“President Trump was wrong,” Pence said. “I had no right to overturn the election. And his reckless words endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day. And I know that history will hold Donald Trump accountable.”

The words were startling from Pence, but didn't reach nearly far enough, detractors complained.

"I’m glad he said it, but it’s not sufficient that he refuses to say so on the record, and in front of the appropriate investigative bodies," Trump critic and Lincoln Project cofounder Rick Wilson told the Rev. Al Sharpton on MSNBC's Politics Nation.

If Pence "wanted to make a difference with these comments, he would've done [so] in front of the J6 [House] committee, or in front of the special counsel. He would not be fighting the special counsel tooth and nail to avoid giving testimony. But he is willing to [talk] at the Gridiron dinner," Wilson added. "He should be speaking in a way where the official weight of these words would have an impact on Donald Trump."

But Mike Pence, "like every other Republican, wants to have it both ways," Wilson charged. "They want to nod and wink at normal America, and say: 'I know how bad he [Trump] is' — and they also want to nod and wink at Trump's base, and say, 'I'm trying to fool the normies.' "

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) agreed. While she was encouraged Pence declared Trump's actions as "wrong," and that "history will hold him accountable," she also told Sharpton: "I want to know if these comments were not made in front of the American public — or before the special counsel which has subpoenaed him to testify about the events leading up to Jan. 6."

What is the "purpose of him saying this now? " she asked. "It's a little too late for this now."

Jackson reiterated the horror of insurrection day when she was “on my stomach” hiding in the House from angry Trump supporters. "It was a mob takeover," she recounted. "It was violent."

Check out Wilson's full comments here or at this link.

Rep. George Santos (R-NY), who has forged a reputation for his serial lies, ironically revealed in an interview published Sunday that he would prefer more "genuine" actors up for the Oscars.

Asked about his picks for the Academy Awards Sunday night, he responded: “I have my favorite actors, and then I have the actors I think are charismatic: JLo, The Rock, Melissa McCarthy. They’re genuine," he said.

None of the actors Santos listed are currently up for Oscars, noted The Guardian, citing Santos' interview published Sunday on the website Pirate Wires.

Santos has conceded he "embellished" his resume when he lied about his parentage, his education and his career. He also apparently imagined a number of campaign donors listed on his finance forms. He's now the target of an investigation by the House Committee on Ethics and of a complaint to the Federal ElectionCommission about his campaign finances.

Santos also weighed in on last year's most notable Oscars event when Will Smith left the audience to slap host comedian Chris Rock on stage over his joke about Smith's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. "It was f*cking stupid," said Santos. "Chris Rock is a genius."

Santos said he won't be watching the Oscars this year because he's not interested in a celebration of “fancy people” and “elitists."

If he decides to go for it, uptight Mike Pence would predictably be chill-challenged in a race for the presidency.

Take his appearance during the Trump administration standing in for his boss to headline the Gridiron Club Dinner. After a few jokes written by someone else, he "didn't exactly slay," Politico snarkily noted in a story Saturday on some of Pence's candidate personality issues.

He's headlining the dinner again tonight.

His "comedic sweet spot is squarely in the “Dad joke” zone, quipped Politico.

But believe it or not, some think Pence has a killer, if extremely subtle, sense of humor that he keeps hidden away. His humor is under-estimated,” Nick Ayers, Pence’s former vice-presidential chief of staff, told Politico.

Pence's former chief strategist and senior adviser Tom Rose claims he's “a dangerously fantastic mimic — scary good. I don’t know why he never lets anyone see that.”

Former Indianapolis Star cartoonist Gary Vavel, who first met Pence in 1994 as a guest on “The Mike Pence Show,” praised the future vice president's “self-deprecating sense of humor" — something he would never learn from Donald Trump. Pence referred to himself on the program as “His Mikeness," which is difficult to imagine.

Politico noted, again snarkily, that the true test of Pence's humor is "audience dependent."

ALSO IN THE NEWS: How was Alvin Bragg's zombie Trump probe resurrected? And does it have a chance?

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's potential case against Donald Trump suddenly burst this week from what many believed was its grave. But that doesn't mean it has a great chance of success, a Daily Beast columnist warned Saturday.

Bragg reportedly dropped his office's investigation into Trump last year, triggering the resignations of Carey Dunne and Mark Pomerantz, the prosecutors working on the case. Pomerantz even later wrote a book about his dissatisfaction with how Bragg handled the case. No one ever spelled out exactly what happened in the case at the time, and why the probe appeared to be dead.

Bragg later insisted the investigation was ongoing, and, suddenly, the media is talking about a likely indictment against Trump soon in the hush-money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election.

But Bragg’s "newfound prosecutorial libido may not bode well for the potential prosecution," given its likely challenges, wrote columnist Shan Wu in the Beast. After what seemed to be a lengthy lull in the case, the apparent sudden "speed of the process" and "seeming haste with which Bragg has gone from zero to 60" is "cause for concern," Wu cautioned.

READ: Fox News faces potential 'financial death penalty' due to Dominion lawsuit

The probe centers on a $130,000 payment to Daniels seven years ago to keep her quiet about her alleged relationship with Trump ahead of the 2016 election. The payment was made by Michael Cohen, Trump’s former fixer, who has testified that he was following Trump's orders and was reimbursed by his boss.

Cohen, who is expected to be a witness in the potential case, served time in prison for the payment, so it seems like Trump should, too. But Cohen is also a convicted felon, which could raise suspicions about his testimony, noted Wu.

For a felony conviction, Bragg must also prove that Trump falsified business records to cover up another crime, such as a state election law violation, Wu pointed out. Some legal experts have said Trump could say he paid off Daniels to save his marriage — not his campaign.

Bragg, meanwhile, refused to tip his hand in the apparently simmering case against Donald Trump in an interview with the Rev. Al Sharpton Saturday on MSNBC's "Politics Nation." But in what could be a hint, he did vow to fight crime from "the streets to the suites," quoting former Manhattan district attorney Robert Morganthau.

'I can’t talk about anything more than what I've [already] said," Bragg told Sharpton. "We have an active investigation."

Bragg insisted that the "same team" is "working with the same professionalism and rigor" on the case. He added that his office is following the "facts, no matter what party you are."

ALSO IN THE NEWS: How Kushner and Trump sold out America for billions while the media looked the other way

A controversial far-right Tennessee pastor has confessed he was too extreme in his political attacks and is turning instead to "calling out demons" in Jesus' name, he said in an interview Saturday.

Internet preacher Greg Locke of the online Global Vision Bible Church told The Christian Post he took his political activism too far the past few years and is now into "deliverance." Locke believes he was somehow misdirected in focusing on "things that are not in the spiritual realm."

He once notoriously urged the use of the "Second Amendment" — i.e., guns — against the Democrats' "propaganda machine." The event where he spoke also featured Donald Trump's long-time confidant and friend Roger Stone.

Now Locke said he's inspired by "miracles, signs, wonders [and] tongues deliverance," referring to the little-understood "speaking in tongues." Locke also noted that he has witnessed "demons fleeing," so has now "transitioned from calling out politicians to calling out demons."

READ: Fox News faces potential 'financial death penalty' due to Dominion lawsuit

Locke first rocketed to fame on the internet when he posted a video on Facebook in 2016 criticizing Target for its new policies on gender-neutral bathrooms. He became a vehement supporter of Donald Trump and a fierce foe of COVID restrictions, ordering Americans to take off their "stupid" masks.

"I was very political. I mean, I was on the Trump train. I was there January 6, and I was very, very political in a lot of ways ... I'm very conservative, and I'm very concerned about what's happening in our nation. But at the end of the day, it's not a White House problem. It's a God's house problem," Locke explained.

"I became the most controversial pastor of America, to the most hated pastor in America, to the most dangerous pastor in America," Locke admitted. Now, he insisted, "I would say I'm probably the most misunderstood pastor in America because they don't recognize the transition."

ALSO IN THE NEWS: Maria Bartiromo may have placed Fox in more peril than other network personalities — here's why

Fox News heir Lachlan Murdoch is facing one of his biggest media challenges to date deep in "the mire" of the operation's admitted lies about a "rigged" election revealed in the scathing Dominion Voting Systems defamation lawsuit, a biographer warned Saturday.

“This is an incredible signal moment for him, and his fingerprints are not absent here — he is part of this," journalist and author David Folkenflik told The Guardian in an article Saturday.

"Everything we’ve seen from Lachlan so far suggests that he was very front-of-mind worried about appeasing and serving their audiences," added Folkenflik, media correspondent for National Public Radio and author of "Murdoch's World: The Last of the Old Media Empires." It was "business first, then politics and political influence, then the ideological agenda, and only then came journalism, which looks like a distant fifth right now," he noted.

It's far from clear if Lachlan has the savvy and bold obstinance of dad Rupert Murdoch to survive it — and what that could ultimately mean for Fox.

Rupert Murdoch himself admitted in a deposition in the $1.6 billion lawsuit that neither Fox News executives nor star hosts ever believed Donald Trump's lies of a "rigged" presidential election. But the network nevertheless continued to peddle Trump's tale to its extremist viewers to keep up ratings.

Now, Murdoch seems to be taking a backseat to his son to deal with the blowback. That's fine with Dominion, which noted in its lawsuit that Lachlan Murdoch's role in allowing the rigged election lies on Fox was "direct." Lachlan admitted in a deposition in the Dominion suit that he gave “specific direction on both the tone and narrative of Fox’s news coverage." He was "responsible for the defamatory broadcasts," the Dominion suit has noted.

So far, Lachlan Murdoch seems to be taking a "whatever" approach, which hasn't been particularly effective. In his first public comments on the controversy Friday he called the scandal just "noise," and said he stood by Fox News' "without fear or favor" election and political coverage. Murdoch — who is CEO of Fox News' parent, Fox Corp. — also insisted the issue is not even "about journalism" — it's "about the politics." He added: “Unfortunately, that is more reflective of our polarized society that we live in today.”

Fox has attacked Dominion's scathing revelations of election lies as "distortions" and "cherry-picked quotes."

The case is scheduled for trial April 17.

An anonymous jury may hear writer E. Jean Carroll's upcoming rape defamation suit against Donald Trump, a judge in the case indicated Saturday.

Carroll, a former columnist for Elle magazine, has accused Trump of raping her in the dressing room of a Manhattan department store in the late 1990s. She sued him for defamation after he derided her claims, said she was not his "type," and that her accusation was politically motivated.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan issued an order Saturday asking Trump and Carroll to respond by March 17 if either side has any objections to using an anonymous jury, Bloomberg reported. Kaplan didn't explain why he might opt for an anonymous jury. But jurors could be targets of threats in the politically charged case. Anonymous juries have been used in the past to protect jurors' safety in cases involving organized crimes and terrorists.

Kaplan ruled Friday that Trump's controversial hot-mic comments to an Access Hollywood host in 2005 will be allowed at the trial. Trump boasted then about "grabbing" women without their consent, saying he could get away with it because he was famous.

READ: Kari Lake's threat to run for the Senate has Republicans 'completely paralyzed'

Neither Carroll's nor Trump's attorney could immediately be reached for comment.

The trial is scheduled for April 10.

Carroll initially sued Trump for defamation in 2019. Late last year, Carroll filed an upgraded suit against Trump under the new Adult Survivors Act, which temporarily lifts the statute of limitations for a year on civil claims over alleged sexual offenses.

ALSO IN THE NEWS: An incredulous Anderson Cooper busts Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis for further 'lying about her lies'

Several Republican leaders are having a serious case of the jitters over a possible Senate run by Arizona's Kari Lake. They fear she'll easily win a primary race over more mainstream rivals — then get trounced by a Democrat in the general election, repeating what happened in several midterms in the nation.

Many observers fear Lake is far too extreme to win a general election, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday. She's still relentlessly, baselessly challenging her loss in the gubernatorial race to Katie Hobbs. But the Donald Trump-allied, high-profile candidate in a Senate run would likely edge out — or even frighten away — GOP rivals who would appeal to a broader swath of voters.

The GOP primary field is "completely paralyzed, waiting for her next steps," Lake senior adviser Caroline Wren told the Journal, because few Republicans want to race against Lake.

Lake would be tough to beat in a GOP primary, said Mike Noble, chief of research at the nonpartisan Phoenix-based polling company OH Predictive Insights. But she would “have a big problem heading into the general election," he told the Journal.

ALSO IN THE NEWS: Busted: Trump attorneys headed to court to explain two-trial deadline scam

AzCentral columnist Laurie Roberts was far harsher in comments last month, calling Lake a "nightmare" candidate for the GOP — "for the part of the Republican Party that’s sick of losing, that is," she added.

Republicans see the seat, currently held by Independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, as a GOP pickup opportunity — but probably not with Lake in the mix in what could be a three-way race, many believe.

Independent voters — the second-largest group in the state after Republicans — favored Democrats by more than 30 points in the 2022 midterm elections, according to an Associated Press VoteCast poll. Many Republican leaders believe candidates have to move toward mainstream candidates to win.

Americans for Prosperity, a group funded by right-wing billionaire Charles Koch, is opposing Trump in the presidential race — and is hunting for an alternative to Lake in Arizona, the Journal noted.

“We’re looking for a candidate who can win a general election," Stephen Shadegg, Arizona state director for the group, told the newspaper.

Accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, who was photographed in the past partying with Donald Trump, stopped "hanging out" with Trump when he realized he "was a crook," his brother told Business Insider.

According to Mark Epstein, Trump and Jeffrey Epstein were friends for years. But Jeffrey Epstein said in an unaired interview with former White House adviser Steve Bannon seen by his brother that he cut ties with Trump because of his concerns, Business Insider reported Saturday.

Bannon sent Jeffrey Epstein a Dropbox link to a clip of the interview, which Epstein forwarded to his brother in 2019, according to Mark. The link is no longer active, Epstein's brother told Business Insider.

Jeffrey Epstein was arrested in 2019 on federal sex-trafficking charges and died of an apparent suicide in a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial. He was suspected of raping scores of young women, many of them minors, and providing them to other men. His long-time companion Ghislaine Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for helping Epstein locate and sexually abuse underage girls for more than a decade.

ALSO IN THE NEWS: Busted: Trump attorneys headed to court to explain two-trial deadline scam

Trump wished Maxwell well after her arrest. But Trump also banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago Club shortly before 2008 after Epstein hit on the teenage daughter of a resort member, according to the book "The Grifter's Club: Trump, Mar-a-Lago and the Selling of the Presidency." Esptein pleaded guilty in 2008 to Florida sex trafficking charges.

In a photo widely circulated in the media Donald Trump is seen with his future wife Melania Knauss and Jeffrey Epstein at a party venue. The men reportedly often met up at social gatherings beginning in the late 1980s into the 2000s. Epstein for a time was a frequent guest at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort, which was close to Epstein's Palm Beach home. The men were captured on video together at one party, joking together in footage obtained by NBC News.

One of Epstein's victims testified at Maxwell's trial that she once met Trump at Mar-a-Lago when she was with Epstein. She was 14 at the time.

Neither Trump nor Bannon could immediately be reached for comment.

Anderson Cooper slammed Donald Trump's former senior campaign legal adviser Colorado attorney Jenna Ellis on Friday for completely contradicting within hours her own admission that she had lied when she claimed the 2020 election was rigged.

The segment on his CNN program "360" was entitled: "When Liars Lie About Lying."

Cooper played a clip of a disgusted Ellis baselessly insisting the vote was rigged — the kind of statement she completely disavowed this week — or not.

Ellis, who had helped Trump challenge election results, was censured on Wednesday by a Colorado judge after she admitted under oath in state bar disciplinary proceedings that she had violated multiple professional rules when she misrepresented facts about the election. A watchdog tallied 10 cases of "misrepresentation."

In an agreement with legal authorities, Ellis reportedly accepted that she had “through her conduct, undermined the American public’s confidence in the presidential election, violating her duty of candor to the public.”

Ellis even signed a legal acknowledgment that “she made a number of public statements about the November 2020 presidential election that were false” and did so with a “reckless state of mind” and with “a selfish motive,” according to documents released by Colorado’s Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel.

"What did she do afterward?" an incredulous Cooper asked on his program. Ellis "went on Twitter right after," and appeared to deny everything she had admitted to, proclaiming: "I would never lie," he said.

Specifically, she tweeted, the "left" is "now trying to falsely discredit me by saying I admitted I lied. That is FALSE. I would NEVER lie."

It was not immediately clear if Ellis will face further consequences for — as Cooper put it — "lying about her lies."

Check out the segment below or at this link.

CNN 03 10 2023 20 02 00 www.youtube.com

Donald Trump's former "fixer" Michael Cohen is expected to be the final witness next week, as early as Monday, before a grand jury investigating hush-money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election, CNN and The New York Times reported Friday.

After that it could be just days before indictments are issued against Trump, legal experts believe.

Cohen had another "extended session" Friday with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's team on Friday, Bloomberg reported, apparently to prepare for his testimony. He also told reporters on the street that he was going to be "quiet" for a few days, again apparently ahead of his time on the witness stand.

Cohen, who has served time in prison for the money paid to Daniels, is a key witness in the case. The probe centers on a $130,000 payment to Daniels to keep her quiet about her alleged relationship with Trump ahead of the 2016 election. The payment was made by Cohen. who has testified that he was following Trump's orders and was reimbursed by his boss.

IN OTHER NEWS: Kevin McCarthy shredded for 'selling out' the truth and democracy for his own power

Cohen’s lawyer, Lanny Davis, told reporters Friday that "Michael Cohen has truth on his side." He also said he and Cohen "appreciate the professionalism of Mr. Bragg’s team.”

Legal experts believe Trump could face campaign finance charges in the case that may amount to a "low-level" felony.

Trump has denied having an affair with Daniels. He blasted Bragg's probe in a post on Truth Social Thursday as a "witch hunt" designed to "take down" the leading candidate for the presidency.

He also flamed Cohen in a Truth Social post, while Cohen predicted that Trump will never take the stand in front of the grand jury in his own defense — even though Bragg as invited him to do so — because he's too much of a "liar."