BOOK ‘EM: John Eastman, a lawyer who was instrumental in Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election, turned himself in yesterday for arrest and booking at Georgia’s Fulton County Jail. He had his mugshot taken and was issued prisoner # 01135735.

  Eastman said in a statement that the indictment “represents a crossing of the Rubicon for our country, implicating the fundamental First Amendment right to petition the government for redress of grievances.”

  Among the charges against Eastman are conspiracy to file false statements and documents, conspiracy to commit forgery, and soliciting a public officer to violate his oath of office. Eastman has been described as an architect of the plan to create slates of fake electors to cast ballots for Trump.

  Nonetheless, Eastman’s statement goes on to say about his indictment that, “It targets attorneys for their zealous advocacy on behalf of their clients, something attorneys are ethically bound to provide.”

  Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani also is due to turn himself in but has been unable so far to find a lawyer to represent him in Georgia. 

  In another development, former Trump White House Chief of Staff mark Meadows asked a federal court to block his arrest if he doesn’t surrender to the Fulton County Jail by the Friday deadline. He wants time for a hearing on having his case moved to federal court, but District Attorney Fani Willis sent him an email saying that that at “12:30 pm on Friday I shall file warrants in the system.”

DEBATABLE: Eight Republican presidential wannabees gather in Milwaukee tonight for the first candidate debate of the 2024 election. Donald Trump, the candidate leading by far Among Republicans in the polls with 54.3 percent, has said he will not participate.

  On the roster followed by their latest polling averages are:

-Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, 14.5%

-Tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, 8.9% 

-Former Vice President, Mike Pence, 4.2%

-South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, 3.5%

-Former South Carolina Gov. and UN Ambassador Niki Haley, 3.4%

-Former New Jersey Gov. Gov. Chris Christie, 3.3%

-Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, .7%

-North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, .4%

  Donald Trump is expected to compete against the debate with the release of a pre-recorded interview with fired Fox News host Tucker Carlson. Republican officials say Trump representatives will be barred from the post-debate “spin room” for press interviews. 

LIKE A HEAT WAVE: As many as 150 million people are under warning for a brutal heat wave expected to affect portions of 16 states from Minnesota to Louisiana. Cities under warning include Minneapolis, Omaha, Wichita, Oklahoma City, Dallas, Little Rock, St. Louis and Chicago. We are skeptical of wind chill and heat indexes because the weatherman uses them to make things sound worse, but heat indexes, the combination of air temperature and humidity, are expected to hit 110 to 120 degrees today and tomorrow.

MAUI: The number of people unaccounted for following the Maui wildfires is now between 1,000 and 1,100, according to the FBI.  The previous estimate was 850. Authorities are having trouble identifying the bodies they have already found. They are asking relatives to provide DNA samples.

ORANGE ALERT: A tech worker at Mar-a-Lago has changed his testimony after Special Counsel Jack Smith sent him a target letter. Yuscil Taveras now accuses Trump and two aides of “efforts to delete security camera footage”, according to a court filing.

  The document says that previously during grand jury testimony, Taveras “repeatedly denied or claimed not to recall any contacts or conversations about the security footage at Mar-a-Lago”.

THE WAR ROOM: Ukraine is still reported to be grinding out slow progress against Russian occupiers in some areas while being on the defensive in others. The Institute for the Study of War reports according to various sources, some of them Russian milbloggers, that Russian troops have retreated in some areas, but whether that’s strategic withdrawal or the result of defeat is hard to assess.

  The NY Times reports that, “Ukraine’s grinding counteroffensive is struggling to break through entrenched Russian defenses in large part because it has too many troops, including some of its best combat units, in the wrong places, American and other Western officials say.”

  One of Ukraine’s big problems is air cover. They don’t have much of an air force and they’ve been begging allies for fighter jets. President Biden has said “no” until reversing himself in the past week. Now, Denmark and the Netherlands have agreed to supply American-made F-16s, 42 of them from the Netherlands and an as yet unannounced number from Denmark. The F-16 is the versatile work horse of fighter jets.

THE SPIN RACK: Eight passengers, including six children, were rescued yesterday in Pakistan from a dangling cable car that broke cables at 1,000 feet over a river. — Russian Gen. Sergey Surovikin, the former commander of the war on Ukraine, has been fired as the head of Russia’s aerospace forces. He disappeared from public view after the Wagner forces brief rebellion. — As the world’s ice melts, a mountain guide on a glacier in Austria found the body of a man believed to have died more than 20 years ago. 

BELOW THE FOLD: Gladstone’s, the famous seaside restaurant in Pacific Palisades, California is reported to be closing to be replaced by a fancier joint. Gladstone’s is where you sit outside over the surf and fight with seagulls for your food. One report says it will be replaced by a Frank Gehry-designed, Wolfgang Puck-operated restaurant. If it has outdoor dining, the seagulls will continue to be the primary patrons.

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