ENEMIES Of THE STATE: As the Justice Department goes after President Trump’s perceived enemies,  prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia are preparing to present a grand jury with a perjury case against former FBI Director James Comey, the Washington Post reports. Twelve members of a grand  must vote to indict.

  The question is whether Comey in 2020  lied about his oversight of the investigation into Russian election influencing … the “Russia, Russia, Russia” investigation Trump always complains about.  The case is being brought in Virginia because Comey testified before Congress remotely from his home in McLean. 

   Trump last week forced out the US attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, Erik Siebert, after he refused to prosecute Comey. Siebert was replaced with White House aide Lindsey Halligan, a former Trump defense lawyer with no experience as a prosecutor. The Comey case was revived shortly after Halligan was sworn in Monday. Prosecutors are in a hurry because the statute of limitations runs out on Tuesday.

  Trump has said of Comey, “He’s a terrible person, did terrible things.” Trump fired him in 2017

  Trump has also demanded for Attorney General Pam Bondi to seek criminal charges against two other of his perceived political foes, New York’s Democratic Attorney General Letitia James,  and Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California.

   The DOJ is also pursuing former National Security Adviser John Bolton, who served Trump in his first term and has since become a critic. The DOJ revealed that in searches of Bolton’s home and office, FBI agents seized several documents they described as “secret,” “confidential” or “classified” pertaining to weapons of mass destruction, US interests at the United Nations, and strategic government communications. 

ICE ATTACK: One immigrant detainee was  killed and two left in critical condition when a gunman opened fire yesterday from a rooftop outside an immigration center in Dallas. The Department of Homeland Security said the shooter targeted an unmarked van near the facility run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

  The shooter, a 29-year-old man, killed himself and no ICE agents were wounded.

   FBI director Kash Patel released a photo of unfired ammunition recovered from the scene, with one bullet  marked with the word “ANTI-ICE”. 

THE REGIME:

— The White House told federal agencies to prepare for more mass firings if Congress cannot strike a deal to keep the government open past the September 30^th funding deadline. The White House delivered the ultimatum … probably designed to frighten the Democrats … shortly after President Trump refused to meet with them to negotiate over spending.

— A federal judge in New York said two Justice Department employees may have violated her order limiting their public expression of opinions about the prosecution of accused healthcare CEO killer Luigi Mangione by reposting President Trump’s statements about the case on Twitter/X.  Judge Margaret Garnett said if there are further violations of her order it could result in sanctions, including fines or contempt of court.

  Trump had claimed Mangione was connected to “left-wing extremist groups.”

THE OBIT PAGE: Offbeat indie film director Henry Jaglom, who made such films as “Eating,” “Babyfever,” and “Going Shopping,” died in Santa Monica at age 87.

  He didn’t make blockbusters, he made movies about the interior lives of people. “I aim my films,” he said, “at a 10 or 15 percent, hopefully, level of the audience that wants to see grown-up films about human relationships.”

— Actress Claudia Cardinale, the raven-haired beauty variously described as “Italy’s girlfriend” and “dream girl,” died in Nemours, France. She was 87.

  Cardinale appeared in at least 150 movies, including the Blake Edwards  comedy classic “The Pink Panther.”

THE SPIN RACK:  A court in Paris sentenced former French President Nicolas Sarkozy to five years in prison after finding him guilty of accepting illegal campaign financing from the government of then-Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. Sarkozy was president from 2007 to 2012. — The woman who tried to scam the Elvis Presley family out of the star’s Graceland mansion was sentenced to more than four years in prison.  Lisa Jeanine Findley, 54, of Kimberling City, Missouri engineered a scheme involving made up names, emails, fraudulent forms, and documents meant to wrest control of millions of dollars and the Presley estate. — The struggling Starbucks coffee chain announced that it is closing 434 of its nearly 19,000 outlets. — A bronze painted statue of President Trump appearing to be dancing and holding hands with sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein was installed on DC’s National Mall this week, only to be removed in less than a day. The statue was titled Best Friends Forever. 

BELOW THE FOLD: An estimated 6.2 million people watched comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s return to air Tuesday night. Kimmel said that now he knows how many of his friends are not usually watching.

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