PRESIDENTIAL IMMUNITY: During arguments about Donald Trump’s claim of absolute presidential immunity from criminal prosecution, some of the Supreme Court Justices sought definition of what would or would not be a presidential act covered by immunity. They seemed to be leaning toward eliminating some of the federal criminal charges against the former president.

  Justice Clarence Thomas, whose wife campaigned to reverse the 2020 election, declined to recuse himself.

  Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. said the appeals court decision rejecting immunity for Trump in his federal election indictment “did not get into a focused consideration of what acts we are talking about.”

  Some of Trump’s actions, like working with private lawyers to create slates of fraudulent electors, might easily be considered private, taken in his role as a disappointed presidential candidate. Others, like pressuring Vice President Mike Pence not to certify the vote, might more easily be explained away as the action of a president concerned about the legitimacy of the election. But Michael Dreeben, arguing for the Justice Department, said both kinds of actions were part of an “integrated conspiracy”to illegally overturn the election.

  Trump lawyer D. John Sauer said that without immunity all presidents would be paralyzed by the fear that once out of office, they could be prosecuted for political reasons. Dreeben countered that excusing presidents from following the law would allow them to commit crimes including “bribery, treason, sedition, even murder” with impunity.

ORDER IN THE COURT: Former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker claimed yesterday in a New York Court that he had his ethical limits. Although he has admitted killing some stories to help favored celebrities and manipulating stories to make other people look bad, Pecker said he wanted nothing to do with paying porn star Stormy Daniels for her silence about an affair with Donald Trump.

  Pecker testified in Trump’s criminal trial that he told lawyer Michael Cohen he was “not going to be involved with a porn star.” But Pecker said, “I thought it would be very damaging. I thought it should come off the market. If anyone were to buy, I thought Michael Cohen and Donald Trump should buy it.” 

  Despite that, Pecker said he spent 17 years protecting Trump from bad news. He said he paid $150,000 to Playboy model Karen McDougal to kill her story about an affair with Trump, and that he did it to protect Trump’s presidential aspirations. That’s the important point, that in effect it was an illegal campaign contribution. He said that during a meeting with Trump after the 2016 election, the president-elect asked, “How’s our girl doing?”

PLOT TWIST: The New York rape conviction of disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein has been thrown out by the state Court of Appeals, which found that the prosecution improperly used the testimony of women who said they had been raped by Weinstein but whose accusations were not included in the criminal charges. Those witnesses were brought to establish Weinstein’s pattern of sexual abuse.

  The 72-year-old Weinstein has been housed in a medical unit at Mohawk Correctional Facility east of Syracuse, NY while serving a 23 year sentence. This does not mean he would go free because he is also sentenced to 16 years in California for raping a woman in the Beverly Hills Hotel. New York authorities say they will re-try Weinstein.

  When the tales of Weinstein’s profligate abuse went public it helped spark the #MeToo movement against such men in positions of power. Actress Ashley Judd, the first to openly accuse Weinstein, said yesterday, “We know what happened.”

CAMPUS CLASHES: Following student protests and arrests, the University of Southern California announced that it is cancelling the school’s main graduation ceremony for security reasons. The administration said it would be impossible to process the expected 65,000 graduates and guests for the May 10^th event.

  The individual colleges and graduate schools are still expected to hold graduations.

  USC began backing off with the cancellation of a speech by their Muslim valedictorian. That was followed by the cancellation of appearances by “Crazy Rich Asians” director Jon Chu and tennis star Billie Jean King.

  In the past couple of days, students at Emory University, Northwestern, Cornell, George Washington, Princeton, and the City College of New York have set up pro-Palestinian protest encampments on their campuses joining a long list of other universities. More than 500 people have been arrested. 

POWER PLAY: The Biden administration yesterday issued a regulation that would force the country’s coal-fired power plants to virtually eliminate planet-warming pollution or shut down.

  The regulation from the Environmental Protection Agency requires coal plants in the US to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions 90 percent by 2039. Climate activists are thrilled, but coal executives say the new standards would be impossible to meet and it would be the death knell for coal-fired electricity. Coal emits more carbon dioxide than any other fuel source and the US still has about 200 coal fired power plants 

THE WAR ROOM: As Russian forces make marginal advances along the eastern battle front, Ukraine is stepping up its aerial attacks into Russian territory, something it did not do earlier in the war.

 Ukraine has been using drones to attack over the Russian border and for the first time has used long-range missiles provided secretly by the United States to hit a Russian military airfield in Crimea. Also this week, Ukrainian drones hit oil depots in Russia’s Smolensk region.

THE SPIN RACK: A new channel cleared through the wreckage of Baltimore’s Key Bridge is allowing large ships trapped in the harbor to begin leaving for their destinations. — The popular and crowded tourist city of Venice, Italy has begun charging day visitors for entry.  

BELOW THE FOLD:  Oscar-winning actress Emma Stone says she wants to be known by her real name, Emily. She had changed it because another guild actress was already going under the name “Emily Stone.” What would happen if the other Emily Stone changed to Emma?  

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