Criminal Intent: The Manhattan District Attorney is signaling that indictment is imminent for former President Donald Trump for payment of hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels, The NY Times reports.

  Prosecutors offered Trump a chance to testify before a grand jury, a strong indicator that indictment might follow, the paper reports. It would be the first indictment of a former president and would drop a bomb into the 2024 election campaign. 

The Budget Line: President Biden yesterday proposed a $6.8 trillion budget plan that would increase spending on the military and new social programs while also reducing future budget deficits.

  It was predicted to be dead on arrival with Republicans and fulfilled its promise. “His new budget contains the highest sustained levels of taxes, spending, and deficits in American history,” said Texas Rep. Jodey Arrington, chairman of the House Budget Committee. Biden’s plan has no chance of passing the Republican House, setting up a fight about money.

  Biden would reverse the Trump-era tax cuts for the wealthy with $5 trillion in tax increases on high earners and corporations over a period of 10 years. Speaking at a Philadelphia union hall, Biden posed his plan as something to help  average Americans. He told the crowd, “The things I’m proposing not only will lift the burden off the families of America, it’s also going to generate economic growth,” 

The War Room:  Russia stepped it up yesterday firing a half dozen hypersonic missiles known as “Daggers” in Russian at targets in Ukraine. They were among at least 81 missiles and drones fired yesterday.

  The hypersonics can fly at least four times the speed of sound and make dramatic changes in course. Launched from an aircraft and with a range of 1,250 miles, they’re hard to shoot down. Russia used it Daggers in the opening days of the war and probably doesn’t have an unlimited supply.

South of the Border: A faction of Mexico’s Gulf Cartel turned over five members who they say carried out the daylight kidnapping in Matamoros in which two Americans were killed last week. One gangster was already captured when the four Americans were found in a drug stash house.

  The cartel’s Scorpions group issued a stunning letter of apology claiming the five members “acted under their own decision-making and lack of discipline” in the attack on Latavia “Tay” McGee, Shaeed Woodard, Zindell Brown, and Eric James Williams, all of South Carolina. Woodard and Brown died of bullet wounds.

  The letter says the five went against the Gulf Cartel’s policy of “respecting the life and well-being of the innocent.”

It’s Political: Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley has called for changing the retirement age and limiting Social Security and Medicare benefits for wealthier Americans. “The first thing you do is you change the retirement age of the young people coming up so that we can try and have some sort of system for them,” Haley said at a town hall in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

  This kind of talk is politically fraught. France has had riots in recent days over a proposal to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64.

Trump World: Jenna Ellis, a lawyer for Donald Trump who helped push his false claims about the 2020 election, admitted in a Colorado disciplinary proceeding that she misrepresented evidence and the election result at least 10 times. 

  Among her claims, Ellis said the Trump team had evidence of switching votes from Trump to Biden, that the Trump team found 500,000 illegal votes had cast in Arizona, and that Trump “won in a landslide.” Ellis is at least the fourth Trump attorney, including former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, to face discipline by the profession for spreading election lies.  She was merely censured, a slap on the wrist.

  And she was unapologetic, issuing a statement saying, “This was politically motivated from the start from Democrats and Never Trumpers. They ultimately failed to destroy me and failed in their attempt to deprive me of my bar license.” 

Tiger, Tiger: The former girlfriend of golfing great Tiger Woods is suing him for $30 million and a cancellation of her nondisclosure agreement. Erica Herman was with Woods for six years until one day she was told to pack for a short vacation. When she got to the airport she was told by Woods’ operatives that it was over and she was locked out of the house.

  Herman claims that a trust owned by Woods violated the Florida Residential Landlord Tenant Act by breaking her oral tenancy agreement. She also claims that someone made off with $40,000 in cash that was with her possessions in Tiger’s Florida mansion. 

The Obit Page: Topol, the Israeli actor who in his late 20s reached fame in the role of Tevye, the shtetl milkman in the movie version of  “Fiddler on the Roof,” died at home in Tel Aviv. He was 87.

  His son said he had Alzheimer’s disease.

 His full name was Chaim Topol, but professionally he used only his surname. Zero Mostel was the original Tevye on Broadway, but Topol replaced him with great success for the Hollywood version. He got an Oscar nomination and won a Golden Globe.  The Jerusalem Post described him as “Israel’s most famous export since the Jaffa orange.”

The Spin Rack:  German police say eight people are dead in a shooting at a Jehovah’s Witness hall. — A spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell explained yesterday that his boss is in the hospital after suffering a concussion in a fall at a dinner party at a Washington Hotel. David Popp said, “He is expected to remain in the hospital for a few days of observation and treatment.”

Below the Fold: Donald Trump is releasing a book of letters — “Letters to Trump” — written to him by celebrities and world notables including Oprah Winfrey and north Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. You can be sure they are letters  of praise. 

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