NEVER SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN:  Former President Donald Trump yesterday in a Washington federal court pleaded not guilty to his third criminal indictment since June, this one charging that he conspired to overthrow the legitimate results of the 2020 election.

  Moments before boarding his plane to leave Washington, Trump said to reporters, “This is a very sad day for America,” and he said it was sad driving through Washington, which he claimed had become rundown and broken since he was president.

  Trump had been handed an umbrella in the rain by his body man, Walt Nauta, who is indicted with the former president in the secret documents case. 

  Trump said, “This is persecution of a political opponent. This was never supposed to happen in America.” He said, “So if you can’t beat ‘em you prosecute ‘em. We can’t let this happen in America.”

  Among other offenses, this new indictment charges that Trump pressured Vice President Mike Pence and conspired to throw out the legitimate electoral college votes in seven states. It wasn’t just “free speech.” 

  Trump is campaigning for president on his indictments, not against them. Earlier he had posted on social media, “I NEED ONE MORE INDICTMENT TO ENSURE MY ELECTION.”

  He might get it. Word is out that the street in front of the Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta will be closed starting Monday, suggesting there might be the announcement of another indictment. 

  In the wake of Trump’s latest indictment, the percentage of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents who believe that Joe Biden did not legitimately win has ticked back up, according to a new CNN poll. Altogether, 69 percent of that group believes Biden’s win was not legitimate, up from 63% earlier this year. The number sounds big, but it’s just over 20 percent of all voters.

  The CNN poll says that 39 percent of Republican-aligned adults believe there is solid evidence proving the election was not legitimate, while 30 percent say it is just their suspicion.

  In the big picture, 61 percent of Americans say Biden legitimately won the election. 

HERE COMES THE JUDGE: Trump has drawn a tough federal judge appointed by Barack Obama for his latest criminal case. 

  Tanya Chutkan has already been dealing out harsh sentences to January 6^th insurrectionists and has previously dealt with Trump. Nearly two years ago when Trump was trying to shield his personal records from the House January 6^thinvestigating committee, Chutkan said, “Presidents are not kings, and you are not President.”

 Chutkan has described January 6^th as a “violent occupation of the US Capitol” and “an assault on the American people.” In some cases, she has meted out sentences that were harsher than prosecutors recommended.

SECRETS FOR SALE: Two members of the US Navy in Southern California have been arrested on charges of providing military secrets and sensitive information to Chinese intelligence. 

  Jinchao Wei, known as Patrick Wei, 22, was charged with spying for China under the Espionage Act. Wei served aboard the amphibious assault ship Essex, moored at Naval Base San Diego. As a machinist’s mate he had access to sensitive national security information.

  Randy Grossman, the US attorney for the Southern District of California, said that Wei, a naturalized citizen, chose to “betray his newly adopted country” rather than report contact from a Chinese intelligence officer.

  In a separate case, Petty Off. Wenheng Zhao, 26, is charged with taking bribes to hand over sensitive military information to a Chinese intelligence officer posing as an economic researcher. Zhao has been assigned to the Naval Base Ventura County in Port Hueneme, up the coast from Los Angeles, which is home to several aircraft squadrons.

COVID STRIKES BACK: Numbers collected by the CDC suggest that a summer surge of Covid-19 could be underway. The number of Covid-19 infections is rising along with ER visits and hospital admissions. Around 8,000 people in the US were hospitalized last week with Covid, a 12 percent increase from the prior week. 

  The Feds announced that a new Covid booster should be released in late September or early October. 

PAIN COMPLIANCE: A federal jury in Louisiana acquitted a white state trooper charged with violating the civil rights of a Black motorist despite body-cam video that showed the officer hitting the man 18 times with a flashlight.

  The case of Trooper Jacob Brown was the first from a series of FBI investigations into Louisiana trooper beatings of Black men during traffic stops. Motorist Aaron Bowman sustained a broken jaw, broken ribs, and a gash to his head. Brown said he was merely applying “pain compliance.”

THE SPIN RACK: Texas A&M University reached a $1 million settlement with a prominent Black professor who was denied the appointment to run the journalism department because university officials feared a conservative backlash. Kathleen McElroy, who was once an editor at The NY Times, was considered for a full professorship with tenure and ultimately was offered just a one-year appointment. — Bryan Kohberger, the suspect in the University of Idaho murders, has offered as an alibi that he was driving around alone the night four students were stabbed to death in their off campus house.

BELOW THE FOLD: The College Board announced that Florida school districts should no longer offer Advanced Placement Psychology because it cannot abide by the state’s demand to remove the longstanding section on gender and sexual orientation. AP psych is one of the most popular courses.

 This is the latest skirmish in the College Board’s battle with Florida’s Department of Education over how to teach race, gender, and sexual orientation. The College Board said in a statement, “The Florida Department of Education has effectively banned AP Psychology in the state.”

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