TREASON, HE SAID:  In the Oval Office, President Trump diverted reporters’ questions way from the Jeffrey Epstein matter accusing former President Barack Obama of attempting a coup, committing treason and that, “It’s time to go after people.”

  Trump dismissed the Epstein uproar as a “witch hunt” and that what reporters should be talking about is that “they caught President Obama.” He was referring to a report from Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard that undermined the eight-year-old assessment that Russia favored Trump’s election in 2016.

   “Obama was trying to lead a coup,” Trump said. “And it was with Hillary Clinton,” he said. “He’s guilty. This was treason. This was every word you can think of.” Trump unabashedly made the accusation in the presence of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

  The Obama administration as well as both Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee had concluded that Russia made a major effort to influence voters for Trump in 2016. Their report was signed by all Republican members of the committee, including Marco Rubio, who is now the secretary of state.

  Trump said of Hillary Clinton, who was Obama’s secretary of state, that he could have sent her to prison but chose not to. “I let her off the hook, and I’m very happy I did, but it’s time to start after what they did to me,” Trump said. “Whether it’s right or wrong, it’s time to go after people. Obama’s been caught directly.”

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE

— House Speaker Mike Johnson yesterday called an early summer recess to block a vote on releasing files related to the accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

  The move stops Democrats from bringing the issue to the floor until September. “We’re done being lectured on transparency,” Johnson said at a news conference complaining about “endless efforts to politicize the Epstein investigation.”

— The Trump administration has drafted a plan to repeal the scientific finding that greenhouse gases are dangerous to human life, The NY Times reports. That finding has been what gives the federal government its authority to regulate emissions and fight climate change. It was the foundation for the Biden administration effort to move the country away from gasoline-powered vehicles.

  President Trump claims that climate change is a “hoax.”

— Federal judges in New Jersey yesterday invoked a rarely used power moving to appoint a new US attorney for the state, cashiering President Trump’s pick, his former defense lawyer Alina Habba. They named Desiree Leigh Grace, an experienced prosecutor named by Habba as her first assistant.

  Attorney Gen. Pam Bondi quickly posted on social media that, “This Department of Justice does not tolerate rogue judges — especially when they threaten the President’s core Article II powers,” and that Grace had been fired.

  Habba had no prior experience as a prosecutor before she was named temporary US Attorney for New Jersey. She has been accused of ordering up obviously political investigations and prosecutions of Trump administration opponents. 

— The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s urban search and rescue unit resigned saying that  the Trump administration is causing “chaos” within the agency. Ken Pagurek is reported to have said that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s requirement for approval of expenditures over $100,000 slows disaster response. 

— The US reached a trade deal that puts a 15 percent tariff on Japanese goods. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he will negotiate with the US but, “it’s not our objective to have an agreement at any cost.”  

— In an effort to bowdlerize American history in the National Parks, the Trump administration has park workers identifying for possible removal any displays that “disparage” Americans.

  Displays identified for alteration or removal, according to the NY Times, include references to climate change and sea level rise, the brutality of slavery, and the imprisonment of Native Americans in Spanish fortresses.

  President Trump’s March executive order said that plaques, films, and other display materials should emphasize the “progress of the American people” and the “grandeur of the American landscape.” President Trump wants the parks and museums to put a positive spin on American history, skipping over the unpleasantness that comes with the true story of mankind.

FIVE RINGS: The US Olympic & Paralympic Committee yesterday said it will bar transgender women from competing in women’s sports in a move that would comply with President Trump’s February executive order on the issue.  “As a federally chartered organization, we have an obligation to comply with federal expectations,” the USOPC said in a statement adding that the committee would work with the national governing bodies to implement the new policy.

THE OBIT PAGE:  Ozzy Osbourne, the former front man for Black Sabbath, “the godfather of metal” who lived the literal life of sex, drugs, and rock ‘n roll and once actually bit the head off a bat, died at age 76 only days after his final performance.

  Osbourne had Parkinson’s Disease, which was aggravated by his years of drug use.

  As the lead singer of Black Sabbath, Osbourne was one of the pioneers of heavy metal who presented a satanic image of darkness, but he went on to have a popular reality show about his family, “The Osbournes,” in which he was a loving but addled family man.

  “All the stuff onstage, the craziness, it’s all just a role that I play, my work,” Osbourne told The New York Times in 1992. “I am not the Antichrist. I am a family man.”

THE SPIN RACK:  Columbia University expelled and suspended students involved in the demonstration in May that took over and shut down the campus’s main library. The NY Times reports according to a source that a handful of students were expelled and about 60 suspended, some for up to two years. — 

BELOW THE FOLD: “Late Show” host Stephen Colbert said, “Over the weekend it sunk in that they’re killing off our show. But they made one mistake. They left me alive.”

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