Watch Trump news live: Michael Cohen to testify today before grand jury in hush money probe as charges loom – Latest News

“It almost seemed as though there was a pretty cozy relationship between the White House and Fox News,” Acosta said before asking Ms Grisham if she had similar experiences.

She laughed and said recalling those times was like “PTSD”, before she said it was a “very cozy relationship” and claimed the network’s star personalities tattled on her if she didn’t give them what they wanted immediately.

Donald Trump’s former lawyer and “fixer” Michael Cohen is expected to testify today before a grand jury investigating hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential election.

Two sources told The Associated Press that Cohen will appear before the Manhattan grand jury on Monday as possible criminal charges against the former president loom.

Last week, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office also invited Mr Trump to testify in the probe sometime this coming week.

While it’s an invitation he is unlikely to accept, it sends the clearest signal yet that he could be criminally indicted for his role in paying hush money to Daniels.

Mr Trump fumed about the matter on Truth Social writing: “I did absolutely nothing wrong, I never had an affair with Stormy Daniels, nor would I have wanted to have an affair with Stormy Daniels.

“This is a political Witch-Hunt, trying to take down the leading candidate, by far, in the Republican Party.”

If prosecuted, Mr Trump would become the first former president in US history to face criminal charges.

Senator Kevin Cramer told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the Republican Party needs to focus not on “who they love the most” but who can win an election for Republicans.

“Donald Trump’s not going to take advice from the party or from me, but I think what will happen is if he’s indicted, that becomes one of the factors [on] whether he wins primaries or not. The other factor is who else is in the race and who may make the best case,” Mr Cramer said. “At the end of the day what is most important for primary voters to think about is not just who they love the most, but who can win for the country and who can win for the party because we’re in desperate need of some new leadership.”

Of course, this is nothing new for the real estate billionaire.

A former White House official who helped implement Donald Trump‘s hardline immigration policies is breaking ranks with the former president and instead encouraging Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to pursue the presidency in 2024.

Several members of the legal team that advanced Donald Trump’s bogus claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him are facing professional sanctions and ethics violations for their spurious attempts to overturn the results.

Attorneys for the now-former president repeatedly and falsely asserted that the election was fraudulent while pushing lawsuits to subvert the outcome in states that he lost.

Ahead of a widely expected presidential campaign, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis introduced himself to an eager audience of Iowa Republicans on Friday with a message that leaned into the antagonism toward the left that has made him a popular figure among conservatives.

“We will never surrender to the woke mob,” he said at the Rhythm City Casino Resort in the eastern Iowa city of Davenport. “Our state is where the woke mob goes to die.”

With the Iowa caucuses less than a year away, Republicans in the state are taking a harder look at DeSantis, who is emerging as a leading rival to Donald Trump. The former president, who is mounting his third bid for the White House, will be in Davenport on Monday as early signs warn that some Republicans may be looking for someone else to lead the party into the future.

DeSantis appeared alongside Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and was heading to the capital city of Des Moines later in the day to meet with a small contingent of GOP lawmakers and to promote his newly released book, The Courage to be Free.

The visit is an early test of DeSantis’ support in the state that will kick off the contest for the Republican nomination next year. Trump remains widely popular among Iowa Republicans, though positive views of the former president have slipped somewhat since he left the White House. Now, 80 per cent say they have a favorable rating of him, down slightly from 91 per cent in September 2021, according to a Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll released on Friday. Eighteen per cent have unfavorable views of Trump.

The poll’s movement suggests Iowa Republicans are not singularly committed to Trump for 2024 and are open to considering other candidates. Though slightly behind the well-known Trump, DeSantis gets a rosy review from Iowa Republicans — 74 per cent favorable rating. Notably, DeSantis has high name recognition in a state over 1,000 miles away from his own; just 20 per cent say they aren’t sure how to rate him.

Federal prosecutors are employing an unusual strategy to prove leaders of the far-right Proud Boys extremist group orchestrated a violent plot to keep President Joe Biden out of the White House, even though some of the defendants didn’t carry out the violence themselves.

Josh Marcus has the details.