The Witch Hunt: In a development that can’t be good for the President’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen or the President himself, Cohen’s business partner in the New York taxi business has entered a guilty plea and agreed to cooperate with the government in both state and federal investigations, the NY Times reports.

Evgeny Freidman, a Russian immigrant known as the Taxi King, works with Cohen managing the ownership of NY City taxi medallions, which are the licenses to operate taxis in the city.

Friedman is a lawyer who was disbarred earlier this month. He was originally accused of failure to pay more than $5 million in taxes, four counts of criminal tax fraud, and one of grand larceny, but he was allowed to plead guilty to evading just $50,000 worth of taxes

Friedman emailed the Times saying, “I had been an officer of the court in excess of 20 years and now I am a felon! I hate that I have been grouped in this runaway train that I am not a part of!”

Asked if he was turning state’s witness, he didn’t answer.

Deep State Conspiracy: President Trump is pressing his attack on the Russia investigation, claiming the FBI planted a spy inside his campaign. He tweeted this morning, “Look how things have turned around on the Criminal Deep State. They go after Phony Collusion with Russia, a made up Scam, and end up getting caught in a major SPY scandal the likes of which this country may never have seen before! What goes around, comes around!”

The FBI did use an informant to investigate whether Russia was trying to influence the election. Whether the informant was a spy is up for interpretation.

Trump gets his interpretation from Fox News. He tweeted, “ ‘It’s clear that they had eyes and ears all over the Trump Campaign’  Judge Andrew Napolitano”

Fake News: Trump’s attack on the investigators brings us to the following. “60 Minutes” reporter Lesley Stahl shook up the room at the annual Deadline Club Awards Monday, telling PBS anchor Judy Woodruff that President Trump admitted to her that he attacks the press to deflect unflattering stories.

“He said, ‘You know why I do it? I do it to discredit you all and demean you all, so when you write negative stories about me no one will believe you,’” Stahl said. “He said that. So put that in your head for a minute.”

The Kimchi Katch: President Trump yesterday backed off his demand that North Korea give up its nuclear arms all at once and admitted that his planned June 12^th meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un may be delayed.

Trump appears to be offering Kim some flexibility after the North said it will not be giving up nuclear weapons without some major concessions by the US.

“There’s a very substantial chance that it won’t work out, and that’s O.K.,” Trump told reporters, as he sat with South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the White House. “That doesn’t mean it won’t work over a period of time. But it may not work out for June 12.”

“There are certain conditions we want to happen,” Trump added. “I think we’ll get those conditions. And if we don’t, we won’t have the meeting.”

Hot Lava: A lava flow from Hawaii’s Mt. Kilauea is now within a couple of hundred yards of the Puna Geothermal power plant, a critical source of electricity for the state. The plant taps volcanic heat to generate electricity from steam.

The plant has been shut down to minimize the danger of explosion, but it could be eradicated by the lava. The main lava flow is sliding by the power plant, but there’s a branch of it that could be trouble.

Already taking a hit is Hawaii’s tourist industry. Two-thirds of Volcanos National Park is closed because Kilauea is active. Just when the show is really good, you can’t see it.

The Obit Page: Novelist Philip Roth, who broke into literary prominence with his collection of stories “Goodbye, Columbus,” died in a new York hospital at age 85.

He was one of the great figures of 20^th Century literature. Among his works: “Portnoy’s Complaint,” “The Human Stain,” and  “American Pastoral.” For some stretches, he produced a book a year.

Roth wrote about the Jewish life … sex … he was obsessed with that … and the American experience. He said, “Updike and Bellow hold their flashlights out into the world, reveal the world as it is now. I dig a hole and shine my flashlight into the hole.”

Drain the Swamp: A sinkhole formed on the White House lawn just outside the press room, inspiring jokes about draining the swamp. Sinkholes usually form where there’s limestone that gets eroded. In the case of the White House and all of Washington, it was built on a swamp. The swamp was drained 200 years ago to be replaced by a bigger swamp, the US government.

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