Asserts present sweetheart almost lays down the law? (10)

'asserts' is the definition.
(predicating is a kind of asserting)

'present sweetheart almost lays down the law?' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'present' could be 'pr' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'pr' is located in the answer.
'sweetheart' could be 'e' (the heart/centre of 'sweet') and 'e' is found within the answer.
'down' could be 'd' and 'd' is found within the answer.
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is present in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?