(NEW YORK) — Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, speaking on ABC’s Good Morning America Friday, said he was “absolutely” prepared for cross-examination in a potential trial after completing his testimony this week before a Manhattan grand jury mulling charges against Trump.

“I was working for a man who ultimately became president of the United States, and, yes, there are things that we did that were wrong — for example, the hush-money payment — but I never expected that democracy would be on the line as a direct result of the former president,” Cohen told ABC News Anchor George Stephanopoulos.

Trump’s one-time fixer said he’s not worried about allies of Trump attacking his testimony.

“The facts are the facts. The truth is the truth and the truth will always rise so I’m not worried about anything that they want to come at me with,” he said.

Cohen did not divulge what prosecutors, investigating the 2016 payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, asked him specifically after he met with them twice this week, but said, in his view, they have enough evidence to indict and convict the former president.

“I promise you and I promise the American people that all the information that is needed in order to create the indictment to get a prosecution and a conviction is in the hands of the district attorney,” Cohen said.

Stephanopoulos asked Cohen his biggest regret, and he said it was accepting a job from Trump in 2007.

“That’s my biggest regret. There was absolutely no reason for it. I didn’t need to work for him and I probably shouldn’t have. I should have listened to my wife, my daughter, my son and not accepted the job, but I did and, yeah, it’s cost me a lot. It’s cost my family a lot. Our happiness, finances, my law license,” he said. “But most importantly, as I said to you almost five years ago today that my wife, my daughter, my son and my country have my first loyalty and they always will.”

Stephanopoulos asked, “Do you think justice will be served?”

“I know it will be,” Cohen replied.

Cohen tweeted a reminder ahead of the interview that five years ago he told Stephanopoulos that⁩ his first loyalty was not to Trump but to his family and country, promising to discuss how he’s adhered to the words since.

Trump’s one-time fixer paid $130,000 to Daniels in the final days of the 2016 presidential campaign to allegedly keep her quiet about an affair she claimed to have had with Trump. The former president has denied an “affair” and his attorneys have framed the funds as an extortion payment.

“You’ll have to ask Michael Cohen. Michael is my attorney. You’ll have to ask Michael,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One in 2018, denying knowledge of the payment.

But the Manhattan district attorney’s office has been investigating whether Trump falsified business records when the Trump Organization allegedly reimbursed Cohen for the payment and then recorded the reimbursement as a legal expense.

Cohen served prison time after he pleaded guilty to federal charges that included campaign finance violations related to the hush payment. Cohen’s attorney, Lanny Davis, noted Wednesday that when federal prosecutors charged Cohen they said that Trump — identified in court records as Individual 1 — directed Cohen to make the $130,000 hush payment, after which his reimbursement to Cohen was falsely logged in the Trump Organization’s records, according to prosecutors.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, met with prosecutors Wednesday over Zoom after former Trump advisers Hope Hicks, Kellyanne Conway and several other witnesses testified recently.

Prosecutors also invited Trump last week to testify in the probe — the clearest indication yet that they’re nearing a decision on whether to indict him.

No current or former U.S. president has even been indicted for criminal conduct.

ABC News’ Aaron Katersky contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — With the rise of artificial intelligence in our daily lives, members of Congress are trying to get ahead of the curve and ensure the technology doesn’t get out of control.

And they’re taking different approaches to find the best solution.

U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) is taking graduate level courses on AI for his machine learning master’s degree at George Mason University. The 72-year-old lawmaker told ABC News that he doesn’t know enough about the technology but needs to stay on top of it to properly legislate it.

“I’m never going to be a scientist, but I’m helping make policy on some really important things,” he said.

The congressman said his wife recently used the AI in the Bing search engine using his name, and the results came back with falsehoods.

“So how do we regulate that? And especially because we, more than any other country in the world, have this deep, deep-seated commitment to free speech,” he said.

The new Bing is currently in public preview, a Microsoft spokesperson told ABC News.

“We’ve received a lot of helpful user feedback and have quickly responded with updates to address issues and continue to improve the experience,” the spokesperson said.

Beyer warned though that there are concerns about AI, such as impersonations, cheating and other fraud, but it is still too early to regulate it.

“It’s really hard to say, ‘Hey, here’s what I think we should do because it’s so new.’ We don’t know the upsides or the downsides,” he said.

U.S. Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.), an MIT graduate, however, argued that now is the time for Congress to act. In January, Auchincloss showed off how powerful AI can be by reading the first speech on the House floor that was entirely written by ChatGPT.

He warned that tech companies won’t be writing the rules of AI.

“This can’t be social media to 2.0 where policymakers for 15 years, allowed companies to get big, to get rich and to not sufficiently interrogate the effects on society, on politics, on the media, that their technology was having. We have got to be ahead of this wave of innovation not behind,” he told ABC News.

U.S. Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif), a former video game designer who has a master’s degree in AI, told ABC News that he’s constantly had to educate his colleagues on the tech.

He said while the concerns that AI will take away jobs and disrupt lives are legitimate, the technology has had many benefits in advancing medicine, computer technology and other areas.

“What we can’t do is throw the baby out with the bathwater and regulate without understanding what we’re doing,” Obernolte told ABC News. “Because if we do that, we’re going to stifle the development of something that can be incredibly beneficial.”

Still, the elected officials said they will be keeping an eye on any developments.

“There is a meaningful thing there. But I have real trouble imagining what legislation would protect us from that creative destruction. It’s like, almost going back to the atomic bomb. You can’t uninvent it,” Beyer said.

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(NEW YORK) — Fans might call it the luck of the Irish!

Singer-songwriter Niall Horan, who rose to fame as part of the international boy band sensation One Direction, will give a special performance at the White House on Friday to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre teased the star’s appearance on Thursday, tweeting, “It doesn’t get better than this!”

“I think I speak for all the music lovers in the Biden-Harris Administration when I say we cannot wait to welcome @NiallOfficial to the White House tomorrow for a special performance to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day!” she said.

But Jean-Pierre later admitted at a Thursday afternoon press briefing, “I’m going to keep my comments to myself on One Direction. I don’t know who they are. Sorry,” earning laughs from attendees.

Horan, who is from Ireland, was quick to confirm the news.

“It’s an honour to be invited and represent my country. Looking forward to performing and celebrating St. Patrick’s Day at the White House tomorrow,” the 29-year-old responded over Twitter.

President Joe Biden, who often plays up his Irish heritage, will also welcome Leo Varadkar — Ireland’s Taoiseach, or prime minister — on Friday for a bilateral meeting and shamrock bowl handover, an Oval Office tradition to mark St. Patrick’s Day dating back to 1952.

Biden also said earlier this week it was his “intention” to visit both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland to mark 25 years since the Good Friday agreement, the peace accord between Ireland and the United Kingdom.

Typically on St. Patrick’s Day, Ireland’s Taoiseach is hosted across the street from the White House at the Blair House, where the Irish flag is put on display.

Biden couldn’t meet in person with Ireland’s Taoiseach Micheál Martin last year after Martin tested positive for COVID-19 while in Washington.

While Horan hasn’t performed at the White House before, it’s not the first time he was invited. When the Obamas were in the White House, they said One Direction band members had an “open invitation” to perform there and identified daughters Sasha and Malia as big fans.

The band formed in 2010 and broke up in 2016, with members going on to pursue solo careers. Horan was the only member of the British boy band native to Ireland.

It is unclear at what time Horan will perform Friday evening.

ABC News’ Molly Nagle contributed to this report.

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