Truth and Politics: The House committee investigating the January 6^th insurrection has issued subpoenas to Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and four other Republican members of Congress who have previously refused to appear. It’s a rare move for a House investigating committee and the representatives are likely to run out the clock with procedural delays. 

  All five have refused to talk to the committee about their part in the buildup to the riot sparked by President Trump’s big lie that the 2020 election had been stolen from him through fraud.  

  The panel said it demands testimony from McCarthy of California, who spoke on the phone with Trump during the Capitol violence; Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, who coordinated a plan to try to replace the acting attorney general who resisted Trump’s claims of fraud; as well as Jim Jordan, of Ohio,  Andy Biggs of Arizona, and Mo Brooks of Alabama, who could all shed light on efforts to overturn the election.

  McCarthy told reporters he had not yet seen the subpoena but, “My view on the committee has not changed. They’re not conducting a legitimate investigation. It seems as though they just want to go after their political opponents.”

  In an unrelated matter — still involving Donald Trump — a federal grand jury has issued a subpoena in the Justice Department’s inquiry into how 15 boxes of government documents, some marked classified, ended up at  Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence. 

The War Room: Russia appears to be pulling back troops from around the eastern Ukraine city of Kharkiv and reinforcing gains further south in the Donbas region where the fighting has been fierce. One of Vladimir Putin’s primary goals is to control a land bridge between the Crimea and ports on the Black Sea.  

  Up around Kharkiv, the Ukrainians have destroyed pontoon bridges the Russians have been building to cross rivers, severely hampering their movements and re-supply. Britain’s Defense Ministry described the Kharkiv pullback as “a tacit recognition of Russia’s inability to capture key Ukrainian cities where they expected limited resistance from the population.”

  The United Nations estimates that 14 million Ukrainians have been displaced from their homes, nearly a third of the population, and 3,500 civilians have been killed — those that could be counted. 

  On the diplomatic front, Russia has denounced Finland’s bid to join the NATO defense alliance as a threat and vows “retaliatory steps” to “balance the situation.” Sweden is expected to follow Finland soon.

  Russia’s deputy UN ambassador, Dmitry Polyanskiy, told a British news outlet that as NATO members the two Nordic countries  would “become part of the enemy and they bear all the risks.”

  Vladimir Putin had previously said that Ukraine’s desire to join NATO was one factor that moved him to invade.

  Finland has been non-aligned but their interest in joining NATO is spurred by the Russian invasion. Finland shares 800 miles of border with the bear and is still smarting from Russia’s 1939 assault. “As a member of NATO, Finland would strengthen the entire defense alliance,” the Finns said in a statement. The decision must be approved by the Finnish Parliament. 

  Russia, meanwhile, is cutting off natural gas to the former European partners of their state-owned gas company, and a Polish company that operates a major pipeline connecting Europe to Siberia.

Mansion Row: Wildfire yesterday ripped through a row of 20 McMansions in Laguna Niguel on California’s coast South of Los Angeles. Roughly 900 other homes were evacuated.

  As an example of what burned, one news cameraman identified the charred remains of an $83,000 Porsche Taycan electric sports car.

  The cause of the fire has not been determined, but Southern California Edison reported “circuit activity occurring close in time to the reported time of the fire.”

  Some of California’s biggest and most destructive fires have been sparked by electrical accidents or malfunctions. Pacific Gas & Electric took responsibility for the fire in the northern California town of Paradise that killed 84 people.

Black Hole: Astronomers have revealed the first ever picture of a massive black hole in the center of the galaxy. It looks like an orange donut with — what would you think — a black hole in the center. The bright ring is actually light bent by the gravity of the hole, which is estimated to be  4 million times more massive than our sun.

A-hole In One: Pimping for the new the new Saudi-backed international golf series, golfing great Gregg Norman excused the host country’s murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi saying, “Look, we’ve all made mistakes and you just want to learn by those mistakes and how you can correct them going forward.”

  Khashoggi in 2018 was strangled and dismembered by Saudi hit men.

  Norman said, “This whole thing about Saudi Arabia and Khashoggi and human rights, talk about it, but also talk about the good that the country is doing in changing its culture.” 

The Spin Rack: Elon Musk said his takeover of Twitter is “on hold” pending an examination of the number of spam and fake accounts. The stock dove 20 percent. — The Trump Organization has sold the Washington DC hotel in the old post office building that was a hangout for Trumpies during Donald’s administration. — President Biden has taken to calling Donald Trump “the great MAGA king.” — Actress Ashley Judd told Good Morning America that her mother Naomi died of a self-inflicted gunshot. Ashley and her sister Wynonna had previously said only that, “We lost our beautiful mother to the disease of mental illness.” — Rich Strike, the horse that won the Kentucky Derby despite 80-1 odds, will not run in the Preakness Stakes. Meanwhile, the horse’s jockey, Sonny Leon, is serving a four-day suspension for careless riding in a previous race, his fifth suspension since last fall.

Uncovered Girl: For the first time, Sports Illustrated is featuring a model with a c-section scar on the cover of their bathing suit issue. The scar is bigger than her bikini. 

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