Two Articles: As you might expect, President Trump didn’t take it well when the House Judiciary Committee voted yesterday to approve articles of impeachment. “It’s a witch hunt. It’s a sham. It’s a hoax,” he told reporters. “Nothing was done wrong. Zero was done wrong,” he went on. “I think it’s a horrible thing to be using the tool of impeachment, which is supposed to be used in an emergency.”

  In a quick vote in which all the Democrats voted for, and all the Republicans against, the committee decided to give the full House articles accusing Trump of abuse of power and obstructing the congressional investigation.

 The Democrats plan to vote next week to actually impeach and pass the case to the Senate for a trial that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell plans to be quick and favorable for the President. McConnell, who in effect will be the jury foreman, has assured Trump loyalists that he is “taking my cues” from White House lawyers on the President’s defense.

  He may actually hold a trial in which there are no witnesses. 

  The Republican denial of Trump’s actions are at times nearly comical. CNN’s Manu Raju posted a snippet from a brief interview with a member of the Judiciary Committee: “Part of my exchange with GOP Rep. Debbie Lesko: Q: Why is it ever ok for an American president to ask a foreign power to investigate a political rival? Why do you think that’s ok? Lesko: ‘He didn’t. He didn’t do that’ Manu: He did ask Zelensky. Lesko: ‘He did not do that.’”

  Just as a refresher, here’s a bit of the conversation Trump had with Ukraine President Volodymr Zelensky: “There’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it… It sounds horrible to me.”

  Trump tweeted yesterday, “The Do Nothing Democrats have become the Party of lies and deception! The Republicans are the Party of the American Dream!” 

The Docket: The Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether President Trump can be compelled to release his taxes and financial information in three cases that will set a precedent for presidential powers. 

  Trump has pushed the argument of presidential immunity from investigation and prosecution more than any previous occupant of the White House. The case would not likely be decided until next spring.

  Also under scrutiny now is Trump’s financial relationship with Rudy Giuliani, who is representing the President without pay. Trump did not list Giuliani’s services on the annual financial disclosure he filed in May. He is required by law to list the source and value of gifts, including free legal work.

Most Foul: In a case that has rattled the university community around 116^th Street in New York, police have arrested a 13-year-old boy in the murder of an 18-year-old Barnard College freshman as she walked in Morningside Park. Police say Tessa Majors was stabbed to death as she struggled with several boys who tried to rob her.

  Majors is reported to have staggered out of the park with multiple stab wounds and was found by a campus security guard. Police later found a folding knife with blood on it. 

  Police say the boy they have in custody was present during the incident but has implicated two 14-year-olds in the actual stabbing. The 13-year-old has been charged with felony murder, being party to a crime in which someone is murdered.

  Majors was a first-year student at Barnard, which is part of Columbia University. She played with a rock band that just released an album and was interested in journalism. Her killing recalls the 1960s and 70s when Morningside Park was a no-go zone east of the university neighborhood, separating it from Harlem. Today some students live in a gentrified Harlem and cross the park every day. 

The Obit Page: Danny Aiello, a long-working character actor who started on the stage and didn’t make a movie until he was 40, has died at age 86.

  Aiello was nominated for an Oscar playing a pizza shop owner in Spike Lee’s 1989 movie “Do the Right Thing” about racial tension in New York’s Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhood. 

  He played Cher’s clueless fiancé in the 1987 “Moonstruck” and a ruthless police officer who throws a young man off a rooftop in the 1981 “Fort Apache: The Bronx.”  His memoir was titled, “I Only Know Who I Am When I Am Somebody Else.”

Growing Up: Taylor Swift, the chanteuse of teenage-girl angst has turned 30. She’s no longer the girl who’s going to break your heart, she’s the woman. As one of her songs says, “We need love, but all we want is danger.”

-30-