Spin City: President Trump was on Fox News last night spinning like a top about the congressional testimony of former Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Trump called the investigation “treason” and dismissed the Russian attack on the 2016 election as the work of a bunch of “bloggers.” It was in fact a concerted effort by the Russian government and it continues.

 Since the release of the Mueller Report, Trump has claimed that it exonerated him of obstructing justice in the course of the investigation, but Mueller testified Wednesday that was not true.

 Here was the exchange between Mueller and Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee:

 “Director Mueller, the president has repeatedly claimed that your report found there was no obstruction and that it completely and totally exonerated him. But that is not what your report said, is it?” Nadler asked.

 “Right, that is not what the report said,” Mr. Mueller replied.

 “The reason, again, that you did not indict Donald Trump is because of the O.L.C. (Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel)  opinion stating that you cannot indict a sitting president, correct?” Trump was asked by another representative. 

 “That is correct,” Mr. Mueller said.

As We Sit here: Just a day after former Special Counsel Robert Mueller testified that Russians are trying to influence US elections, “as we sit here,” the Senate Intelligence Committee reported that election systems in all 50 states were targeted by Russia in 2016, a broader effort than previously recognized. The bipartisan report says elections are vulnerable in the next cycle, but the findings that would help defend the 2020 elections were so heavily redacted they are close to useless. 

Death Be Not Proud:Under orders from US Attorney General William Barr, the federal government is returning to executing prisoners convicted of capital crimes.  Barr asked the prisons bureau to schedule executions of five inmates  found guilty of murder, including the killings of children and elderly people.

  “The Justice Department upholds the rule of law — and we owe it to the victims and their families to carry forward the sentence imposed by our justice system,” Barr said in a statement. One of the last people executed by the federal government was Timothy McVeigh, one of the Oklahoma City bombers.

  The feds are going against the national trend on the death penalty. In the past 10 years at least five states including New Mexico, Illinois, Connecticut, Maryland, and New Hampshire have done away with the death penalty.

PR Disaster: After massive street protests, Puerto Rico’s Governor Ricardo Rosselló announced he will resign as of August 2^nd, giving a little time for an orderly transition. Only last Sunday he said he would stay on.

  “I feel that to continue in this position would make it difficult for the success that I have achieved to endure,” he added. He’s leaving under threat of impeachment.

  Rosselló is at the center of a scandal over leaked texts that bounced around between 11 members of his administration. Two others have already resigned. The messages were sexist, anti-gay, and profane. 

  But forget the scandal,  Rosselló’s successor will inherit a financial debacle no one will envy. The island government is $74 billion in debt and owes its retirees about $55 billion.

Back Beat:After an incident creating international bad vibes, Sweden has formally charged the American rapper A$AP Rocky with assault after a street brawl in  Stockholm. They plan to hold him until his trial.

  An edited video posted on social media shows Rocky and members of his entourage throwing someone to the ground in the June 30 incident. A more extensive video shows two men following Rocky and his group before the fight and being repeatedly told to back off by a burly bodyguard.

 President Trump tweeted, “I watched the tapes of A$AP Rocky, and he was being followed and harassed by troublemakers. Treat Americans fairly!” 

The News Roundup:Accused teenage-girl molester Jeffrey Epstein was found in his prison cell with marks on his neck indicating he may have attempted suicide. — President Trump vetoed a bill that would have blocked arms sales to Saudi Arabia. Congress isn’t happy about the Kingdom’s war in Yemen or the government murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. — Four of the world’s largest car makers  have agreed with California to keep reducing greenhouse gas emissions despite President Trump’s efforts to gut regulations placed during the Obama administration. Trump once called global warming a “Chinese hoax.” The car makers will produce vehicles that can be sold nationwide that fall just short of the Obama standards but do better than what Trump wants. — Sixteen Marines were arrested in Southern California yesterday and charged with helping to smuggle migrants.

Dunked:French daredevil Franky Zapata ended up in the English Channel rather than over it trying to fly his hoverboard from northern France to southern England at a speed of 90 mph. Zapata stopped for refueling aboard a platform and ended up in the soup.

The Social Section:President Trump’s lawyer and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani is locked in a nasty divorce with wife Judith Nathan in which she accuses the Trump front man of holding hostage her large collection of Christmas decorations. The NY Posthas dubbed the divorce, “Jingle Hell.”

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