IN TRUMP TWEETS FOR OBSTRUCTION MUELLER LOOKING · 27/07/2018 · James B. Stewart writes. PAGE B1...
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VOL. CLXVII . . . No. 58,036 © 2018 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, FRIDAY, JULY 27, 2018 U(D54G1D)y+%!z!,!=!: A deadly collapse raises questions about why no one sounded alarms, and about the quality of the work. PAGE A4 INTERNATIONAL A4-12 Warning Signs for Laos Dam As baseball skews whiter, a pitcher was cheered after racist tweets were ex- posed, Michael Powell writes. PAGE B8 Racist Tweets and Ovations David Brooks PAGE A26 EDITORIAL, OP-ED A26-27 In his first inaugural address in 2014, Mayor Bill de Blasio invoked the names of legendary reform- ers, from Fiorello La Guardia to Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, and said that in their honor and spirit, he would “commit to a new progressive direction in New York.” The anticipation for many of Mr. de Blasio’s supporters was partic- ularly keen because it built on the sense that his predecessor, Mi- chael R. Bloomberg, had presided over the city’s growth in a way that benefited the well-off and left the poor behind. But midway through his fifth year in office, Mr. de Blasio has disappointed some of his most loy- al backers, who point to a range of issues, from criminal justice re- form and homelessness to the pro- tection of immigrants, where the mayor has fallen short of his promises. On Monday, Mr. de Blasio found himself having to explain why, af- ter enacting a policy to end soli- tary confinement in city jails, the city Department of Correction in- creased the number of inmates shipped upstate, where they were put in solitary. He defended the ac- tions as rare and necessary for safety. Other promises have also run up against reality. The city has not succeeded in opening new neighborhood-based Progressives Who Once Hailed De Blasio Bemoan Slow Gains By J. DAVID GOODMAN and WILLIAM NEUMAN Continued on Page A22 For a quarter century, they have been the stuff of myth among scholars: three missing chapters from “The Autobiography of Mal- colm X,” reputedly cut from the manuscript after his assassina- tion in 1965 because they were deemed too incendiary. Their possible existence was first teased at in 1992, when a pri- vate collector at an estate sale scooped up material belonging to Alex Haley, Malcolm X’s collabo- rator on the book. Years later, one biographer was allowed a 15- minute look at some of the papers, but otherwise they have been mostly locked away, surrounded by a haze of cultivated mystery. But now the unpublished ma- terial, or at least some of it, has suddenly emerged and was of- fered for sale Thursday at a Man- hattan auction house, along with another artifact that scholars have never seen: the manuscript for the published book, which bears dense traces of Mr. Haley’s and Malcolm X’s complex negotia- tions over the finished text. At the auction, an unpublished chapter called “The Negro” was picked up by the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture for $7,000. There were no offers on the manuscript for the published Malcolm X Writings Are Sold, Including Rumored Lost Portions By JENNIFER SCHUESSLER Malcolm X’s handwriting, in red, on a manuscript that was sold to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture on Thursday. JEENAH MOON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES Three Missing Chapters From Autobiography Continued on Page A20 LASHING OUT AT E.U. President Trump has a point about a $5.1 billion antitrust fine for Google, James B. Stewart writes. PAGE B1 THE COHEN INQUIRY U.S attor- neys in Manhattan want to inter- view the chief financial officer of the Trump Organization. PAGE A17 WASHINGTON — For years, President Trump has used Twitter as his go-to public relations weap- on, mounting a barrage of attacks on celebrities and then political ri- vals even after advisers warned he could be creating legal prob- lems for himself. Those concerns now turn out to be well founded. The special coun- sel, Robert S. Mueller III, is scruti- nizing tweets and negative state- ments from the president about Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey, according to three people briefed on the matter. Several of the remarks came as Mr. Trump was also privately pressuring the men — both key witnesses in the inquiry — about the investigation, and Mr. Mueller is examining whether the actions add up to attempts to obstruct the investigation by both intimidating witnesses and pressuring senior law enforcement officials to tamp down the inquiry. Mr. Mueller wants to question the president about the tweets. His interest in them is the latest addition to a range of presidential actions he is investigating as a possible obstruction case: private interactions with Mr. Comey, Mr. Sessions and other senior admin- istration officials about the Russia inquiry; misleading White House statements; public attacks; and possible pardon offers to potential witnesses. None of what Mr. Mueller has homed in on constitutes obstruc- tion, Mr. Trump’s lawyers said. They argued that most of the pres- idential acts under scrutiny, in- cluding the firing of Mr. Comey, fall under Mr. Trump’s authority as the head of the executive branch and insisted that he should MUELLER LOOKING FOR OBSTRUCTION IN TRUMP TWEETS ANALYZING PUBLIC ACTS Investigators Focusing on Criticism of Comey and Sessions By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT and MAGGIE HABERMAN Continued on Page A16 WASHINGTON — When Presi- dent Trump called a truce with the European Union over trade, the general outlines of his plan sounded familiar. It echoed of ear- lier negotiations — the ones started under President Barack Obama and shelved by Mr. Trump last year. Mr. Trump, in many ways, is taking credit for solving a crisis of his own making. After taking of- fice, he criticized the deals of his predecessor and cut off trade talks with the European Union. He raised the stakes by imposing tar- iffs on steel and aluminum, prompting retaliatory measures by the European Union. Then he stoked the tensions by calling Eu- rope a “foe.” Now, Mr. Trump, in hashing out an agreement on Wednesday with the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, is declaring victory. He said the two sides would work to lower tariffs and other trade barri- ers. They would reduce bureau- cratic roadblocks to industrial goods flowing across the Atlantic, while ending conflicting regula- tions for drugs and chemicals. The United States was pursuing much the same under Mr. Obama through a deal called the Transat- lantic Trade and Investment Part- nership. And the collapse of the deal still smarts for large seg- ments of American and European business who had fervently hoped to create a trans-Atlantic version of the North American Free Trade Agreement. The European Union has repeatedly told the Trump ad- ministration that it would be happy to revive trade talks. “Most of the deal is stuff we were already on the verge of agreeing on in the T.T.I.P. negotia- tions, before that deal got deep- sixed after Trump’s election,” said Rufus Yerxa, the president of the National Foreign Trade Council, which represents exporters. “But at least the president is talking about more open trade instead of how great tariffs are.” Both European and American officials resisted comparisons to previous negotiations. But it was not immediately clear what would set the new talks apart from those carried out by the Obama admin- istration, beyond their more lim- ited scope. Unlike with the previ- ous round of negotiations, Euro- Truce on Trade Follows Route Obama Paved Trump Claims Victory in Crisis He Started By ANA SWANSON and JACK EWING Continued on Page A10 GREGG VIGLIOTTI FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES Carolina Ramos, right, was reunited Thursday with her son, 17, and daughter, 10, in New York, but hundreds remain apart. Page A18. Deadline Day for Migrant Reunions BEIRUT, Lebanon — Seven years ago, Islam Dabbas, an engi- neering student, was thrown in prison for protesting against the Syrian government. His mother visited him twice, paying bribes to do so, but then the permissions stopped. She heard nothing of her son’s fate ever since. Until last week, when a relative filed for a government registra- tion document and was shocked to see that it gave Mr. Dabbas’s date of death: Jan. 15, 2013. “The news of his death devas- tated us, and we wish we had known then,” said his sister, Heba, who lives in exile in Egypt. “Since his arrest, we have lived days of hope and days of despair as uncer- tainty consumed our minds.” In recent weeks, hundreds of Syrian families have suddenly learned that their missing rela- tives have been registered as dead by the government. Government officials have not commented pub- licly on the new information, said how many people it applied to or explained how they died. But the documents appear to be the first public acknowledgment by the government that hundreds if not thousands of prisoners died in state custody. Analysts believe the quiet changes in status show that President Bashar al-Assad is confident enough of winning the war and remaining in power that he can make that admission with- out fear of repercussion, prodding Scores of Syrian Prisoners Died In Custody, Families Are Told By BEN HUBBARD and KARAM SHOUMALI Acknowledgment May Be Signal of Assad’s Confidence in Grip Continued on Page A9 LAHORE, Pakistan — Imran Khan, a charismatic cricket star who has fiercely criticized Ameri- can counterterrorism policy in a region plagued by extremism, ap- peared poised on Thursday to be- come Pakistan’s next prime min- ister. After preliminary results showed his party decisively ahead in an election that critics say was deeply marred, Mr. Khan ad- dressed the nation on television, outlining what he would do as prime minister. He said he would fight corrup- tion at the highest levels, improve relations with China, seek a “mu- tually beneficial” relationship with the United States and create a just welfare state along the lines of what the Prophet Muhammad did centuries ago. “We’re going to run Pakistan in a way it’s never been run before,” he said. He also said he would never live in the prime minister’s mansion. In a country of so many poor peo- ple, he said, “I would be embar- rassed” to stay in such a house. For years, Mr. Khan had tried but failed to take the reins of this nuclear-armed Islamic republic, which has struggled with poverty, economic stagnation and instabil- ity and which is increasingly torn between its two biggest allies: China and the United States. But this time around, he found a pow- erful ally in Pakistan’s military. Nuclear-Armed Islamic Republic Gets Unpredictable New Leader By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN Khan’s Journey From Cricket Star to Cusp of Power in Pakistan Continued on Page A8 A year after $195 million in aid to Egypt was blocked over rights concerns, the State Department released it. PAGE A9 Aid to Egypt Is Restored Jim Jordan, embroiled in a scandal from his days as a wrestling coach, wants to succeed Paul D. Ryan. PAGE A19 NATIONAL A13-20 Firebrand Seeks Speaker’s Job Women in heels present awards and kisses to Tour de France winners, a ritual many see as outdated. PAGE B8 SPORTSFRIDAY B8-11 Kissing: It’s Part of the Job The social media company’s stock tumbled 19 percent a day after a sec- ond-quarter earnings report showed slowing growth in new users and ad sales. PAGE B1 BUSINESS DAY B1-7 Facebook Shock for Investors Ken Kurson, a friend of Jared Kushner’s and a past adviser to Donald J. Trump, withdrew from consideration for a prestigious position amid harassment allegations. PAGE B1 Undoing of a Kushner Ally Tom Cruise runs, dives, flies and falls as he pushes to greater action extremes in “Mission: Impossible — Fallout,” Manohla Dargis writes. PAGE C1 WEEKEND ARTS C1-20 A Mountain of Spectacles The government has a draft proposal to drop Obama-era rules meant to curb abuses by for-profit colleges. PAGE A19 Plan Buoys For-Profit Schools The City Council is considering a cap on Uber and other for-hire vehicles to address growing complaints over con- gestion on city streets. PAGE A24 NEW YORK A21-24 Proposal to Cap Uber Vehicles Late Edition Today, partly sunny, afternoon storms, humid, high 87. Tonight, strong thunderstorms, low 72. To- morrow, clouds and sunshine, high 86. Weather map is on Page B12. $3.00
Transcript of IN TRUMP TWEETS FOR OBSTRUCTION MUELLER LOOKING · 27/07/2018 · James B. Stewart writes. PAGE B1...
VOL. CLXVII . . . No. 58,036 © 2018 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, FRIDAY, JULY 27, 2018
C M Y K Nxxx,2018-07-27,A,001,Bs-4C,E2
U(D54G1D)y+%!z!,!=!:
A deadly collapse raises questionsabout why no one sounded alarms, andabout the quality of the work. PAGE A4
INTERNATIONAL A4-12
Warning Signs for Laos Dam
As baseball skews whiter, a pitcher wascheered after racist tweets were ex-posed, Michael Powell writes. PAGE B8
Racist Tweets and Ovations
David Brooks PAGE A26
EDITORIAL, OP-ED A26-27
In his first inaugural address in2014, Mayor Bill de Blasio invokedthe names of legendary reform-ers, from Fiorello La Guardia toFranklin and Eleanor Roosevelt,and said that in their honor andspirit, he would “commit to a newprogressive direction in NewYork.”
The anticipation for many of Mr.de Blasio’s supporters was partic-ularly keen because it built on thesense that his predecessor, Mi-chael R. Bloomberg, had presidedover the city’s growth in a waythat benefited the well-off and leftthe poor behind.
But midway through his fifthyear in office, Mr. de Blasio hasdisappointed some of his most loy-al backers, who point to a range of
issues, from criminal justice re-form and homelessness to the pro-tection of immigrants, where themayor has fallen short of hispromises.
On Monday, Mr. de Blasio foundhimself having to explain why, af-ter enacting a policy to end soli-tary confinement in city jails, thecity Department of Correction in-creased the number of inmatesshipped upstate, where they wereput in solitary. He defended the ac-tions as rare and necessary forsafety.
Other promises have also runup against reality.
The city has not succeeded inopening new neighborhood-based
Progressives Who Once HailedDe Blasio Bemoan Slow Gains
By J. DAVID GOODMAN and WILLIAM NEUMAN
Continued on Page A22
For a quarter century, theyhave been the stuff of myth amongscholars: three missing chaptersfrom “The Autobiography of Mal-colm X,” reputedly cut from themanuscript after his assassina-tion in 1965 because they weredeemed too incendiary.
Their possible existence was
first teased at in 1992, when a pri-vate collector at an estate salescooped up material belonging toAlex Haley, Malcolm X’s collabo-rator on the book. Years later, onebiographer was allowed a 15-minute look at some of the papers,but otherwise they have beenmostly locked away, surroundedby a haze of cultivated mystery.
But now the unpublished ma-terial, or at least some of it, has
suddenly emerged and was of-fered for sale Thursday at a Man-hattan auction house, along withanother artifact that scholarshave never seen: the manuscript
for the published book, whichbears dense traces of Mr. Haley’sand Malcolm X’s complex negotia-tions over the finished text.
At the auction, an unpublishedchapter called “The Negro” waspicked up by the New York PublicLibrary’s Schomburg Center forResearch in Black Culture for$7,000. There were no offers onthe manuscript for the published
Malcolm X Writings Are Sold, Including Rumored Lost PortionsBy JENNIFER SCHUESSLER
Malcolm X’s handwriting, in red, on a manuscript that was sold to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture on Thursday.JEENAH MOON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Three Missing ChaptersFrom Autobiography
Continued on Page A20
LASHING OUT AT E.U. PresidentTrump has a point about a $5.1billion antitrust fine for Google,James B. Stewart writes. PAGE B1
THE COHEN INQUIRY U.S attor-neys in Manhattan want to inter-view the chief financial officer ofthe Trump Organization. PAGE A17
WASHINGTON — For years,President Trump has used Twitteras his go-to public relations weap-on, mounting a barrage of attackson celebrities and then political ri-vals even after advisers warnedhe could be creating legal prob-lems for himself.
Those concerns now turn out tobe well founded. The special coun-sel, Robert S. Mueller III, is scruti-nizing tweets and negative state-ments from the president aboutAttorney General Jeff Sessionsand the former F.B.I. directorJames B. Comey, according tothree people briefed on the matter.
Several of the remarks came asMr. Trump was also privatelypressuring the men — both keywitnesses in the inquiry — aboutthe investigation, and Mr. Mueller
is examining whether the actionsadd up to attempts to obstruct theinvestigation by both intimidatingwitnesses and pressuring seniorlaw enforcement officials to tampdown the inquiry.
Mr. Mueller wants to questionthe president about the tweets.His interest in them is the latestaddition to a range of presidentialactions he is investigating as apossible obstruction case: privateinteractions with Mr. Comey, Mr.Sessions and other senior admin-istration officials about the Russiainquiry; misleading White Housestatements; public attacks; andpossible pardon offers to potentialwitnesses.
None of what Mr. Mueller hashomed in on constitutes obstruc-tion, Mr. Trump’s lawyers said.They argued that most of the pres-idential acts under scrutiny, in-cluding the firing of Mr. Comey,fall under Mr. Trump’s authorityas the head of the executivebranch and insisted that he should
MUELLER LOOKINGFOR OBSTRUCTIONIN TRUMP TWEETS
ANALYZING PUBLIC ACTS
Investigators Focusing onCriticism of Comey
and Sessions
By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDTand MAGGIE HABERMAN
Continued on Page A16
WASHINGTON — When Presi-dent Trump called a truce with theEuropean Union over trade, thegeneral outlines of his plansounded familiar. It echoed of ear-lier negotiations — the onesstarted under President BarackObama and shelved by Mr. Trumplast year.
Mr. Trump, in many ways, istaking credit for solving a crisis ofhis own making. After taking of-fice, he criticized the deals of hispredecessor and cut off trade talkswith the European Union. Heraised the stakes by imposing tar-iffs on steel and aluminum,prompting retaliatory measuresby the European Union. Then hestoked the tensions by calling Eu-rope a “foe.”
Now, Mr. Trump, in hashing outan agreement on Wednesday withthe president of the EuropeanCommission, Jean-ClaudeJuncker, is declaring victory. Hesaid the two sides would work tolower tariffs and other trade barri-ers. They would reduce bureau-cratic roadblocks to industrialgoods flowing across the Atlantic,while ending conflicting regula-tions for drugs and chemicals.
The United States was pursuingmuch the same under Mr. Obamathrough a deal called the Transat-lantic Trade and Investment Part-nership. And the collapse of thedeal still smarts for large seg-ments of American and Europeanbusiness who had fervently hopedto create a trans-Atlantic versionof the North American Free TradeAgreement. The European Unionhas repeatedly told the Trump ad-ministration that it would behappy to revive trade talks.
“Most of the deal is stuff wewere already on the verge ofagreeing on in the T.T.I.P. negotia-tions, before that deal got deep-sixed after Trump’s election,” saidRufus Yerxa, the president of theNational Foreign Trade Council,which represents exporters. “Butat least the president is talkingabout more open trade instead ofhow great tariffs are.”
Both European and Americanofficials resisted comparisons toprevious negotiations. But it wasnot immediately clear what wouldset the new talks apart from thosecarried out by the Obama admin-istration, beyond their more lim-ited scope. Unlike with the previ-ous round of negotiations, Euro-
Truce on TradeFollows RouteObama Paved
Trump Claims Victoryin Crisis He Started
By ANA SWANSONand JACK EWING
Continued on Page A10
GREGG VIGLIOTTI FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Carolina Ramos, right, was reunited Thursday with her son, 17, and daughter, 10, in New York, but hundreds remain apart. Page A18. Deadline Day for Migrant Reunions
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Sevenyears ago, Islam Dabbas, an engi-neering student, was thrown inprison for protesting against theSyrian government. His mothervisited him twice, paying bribes todo so, but then the permissionsstopped. She heard nothing of herson’s fate ever since.
Until last week, when a relativefiled for a government registra-tion document and was shocked tosee that it gave Mr. Dabbas’s dateof death: Jan. 15, 2013.
“The news of his death devas-tated us, and we wish we hadknown then,” said his sister, Heba,who lives in exile in Egypt. “Sincehis arrest, we have lived days ofhope and days of despair as uncer-tainty consumed our minds.”
In recent weeks, hundreds ofSyrian families have suddenlylearned that their missing rela-
tives have been registered as deadby the government. Governmentofficials have not commented pub-licly on the new information, saidhow many people it applied to orexplained how they died.
But the documents appear to bethe first public acknowledgmentby the government that hundredsif not thousands of prisoners diedin state custody. Analysts believethe quiet changes in status showthat President Bashar al-Assad isconfident enough of winning thewar and remaining in power thathe can make that admission with-out fear of repercussion, prodding
Scores of Syrian Prisoners DiedIn Custody, Families Are Told
By BEN HUBBARDand KARAM SHOUMALI
Acknowledgment MayBe Signal of Assad’sConfidence in Grip
Continued on Page A9
LAHORE, Pakistan — ImranKhan, a charismatic cricket starwho has fiercely criticized Ameri-can counterterrorism policy in aregion plagued by extremism, ap-peared poised on Thursday to be-come Pakistan’s next prime min-ister.
After preliminary resultsshowed his party decisively aheadin an election that critics say wasdeeply marred, Mr. Khan ad-dressed the nation on television,outlining what he would do asprime minister.
He said he would fight corrup-tion at the highest levels, improverelations with China, seek a “mu-tually beneficial” relationshipwith the United States and createa just welfare state along the linesof what the Prophet Muhammaddid centuries ago.
“We’re going to run Pakistan in
a way it’s never been run before,”he said.
He also said he would never livein the prime minister’s mansion.In a country of so many poor peo-ple, he said, “I would be embar-rassed” to stay in such a house.
For years, Mr. Khan had triedbut failed to take the reins of thisnuclear-armed Islamic republic,which has struggled with poverty,economic stagnation and instabil-ity and which is increasingly tornbetween its two biggest allies:China and the United States. Butthis time around, he found a pow-erful ally in Pakistan’s military.
Nuclear-Armed Islamic RepublicGets Unpredictable New Leader
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN Khan’s Journey FromCricket Star to Cuspof Power in Pakistan
Continued on Page A8
A year after $195 million in aid to Egyptwas blocked over rights concerns, theState Department released it. PAGE A9
Aid to Egypt Is Restored
Jim Jordan, embroiled in a scandal fromhis days as a wrestling coach, wants tosucceed Paul D. Ryan. PAGE A19
NATIONAL A13-20
Firebrand Seeks Speaker’s Job
Women in heels present awards andkisses to Tour de France winners, aritual many see as outdated. PAGE B8
SPORTSFRIDAY B8-11
Kissing: It’s Part of the Job
The social media company’s stocktumbled 19 percent a day after a sec-ond-quarter earnings report showedslowing growth in new users and adsales. PAGE B1
BUSINESS DAY B1-7
Facebook Shock for Investors
Ken Kurson, a friend of Jared Kushner’sand a past adviser to Donald J. Trump,withdrew from consideration for aprestigious position amid harassmentallegations. PAGE B1
Undoing of a Kushner Ally
Tom Cruise runs, dives, flies and falls ashe pushes to greater action extremes in“Mission: Impossible — Fallout,”Manohla Dargis writes. PAGE C1
WEEKEND ARTS C1-20
A Mountain of SpectaclesThe government has a draft proposal todrop Obama-era rules meant to curbabuses by for-profit colleges. PAGE A19
Plan Buoys For-Profit Schools
The City Council is considering a cap onUber and other for-hire vehicles toaddress growing complaints over con-gestion on city streets. PAGE A24
NEW YORK A21-24
Proposal to Cap Uber Vehicles
Late EditionToday, partly sunny, afternoonstorms, humid, high 87. Tonight,strong thunderstorms, low 72. To-morrow, clouds and sunshine, high86. Weather map is on Page B12.
$3.00
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