Mueller s Team In Cryptic Hint, · 11/02/2019 · SAN FRANCISCO amala K ... you re a female, your...
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VOL. CLXVIII . . . No. 58,235 © 2019 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2019 U(D54G1D)y+z!/!#!=!; ONANCOCK, Va. — When the United States Supreme Court or- dered school districts in 1968 to dismantle their segregated class- rooms, Wescott and Nancy Northam had a choice to make. As in much of the rest of the country, private schools had popped up in the Northams’ com- munity on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. They were havens for white parents who did not want their children in the same class- rooms as black students. Mr. Northam was a lawyer, his wife a nurse, so that option was well within their means. But the Northams — whose an- cestors were among the many white slaveowners to lay roots in this rich agricultural region in the early 1800s — made what seemed like a surprising decision for peo- ple of their stature. They kept their sons, Thomas and Ralph, in public schools. In a region where black and white people largely lived in dif- ferent communities, Ralph Northam hung around black neighborhoods with black friends. He was one of two white players on the high school basketball team in 1977, his senior year. His class had 73 students — 37 black, 36 white. “When Ralph came up, we were chasing footballs,” said Robert Garris Jr., who is black and a friend from childhood. “We were chasing basketballs, baseballs. We were fishing. We were crab- bing. We didn’t see race.” Many people are now wonder- ing how this same Ralph Northam, now the governor of Virginia, could be the man who ended up with a racist photograph on his page in a medical-school yearbook. How he could have In Northam’s Youth, Clues to His Views on Race By JOHN ELIGON and ELIZABETH WILLIAMSON Continued on Page A12 SAN FRANCISCO — Kamala Harris was three months into her tenure as San Francisco district attorney in 2004 when a gang member killed a police officer with a hail of bullets from an AK-47. Her announcement within three days of the murder that she would not seek the death penalty set off protests from her fellow Democrats as well as from the po- lice. Senator Dianne Feinstein stood in front of thousands of mourners at the officer’s funeral at St. Mary’s Cathedral and urged her to change her mind; Jerry Brown, the once and future governor, was among those standing in ovation. The state attorney general threat- ened to take over the case, and Senator Barbara Boxer asked the Justice Department to prosecute it. Ms. Harris, the first person of color elected as this city’s district attorney, declared her decision a matter of principle: The death penalty, she believed, discrimi- nated against poor and black peo- ple and would not deter more killing. But death penalty opponents wondered a decade later where that principle had gone when as California’s attorney general Ms. Harris appealed a judge’s decision declaring the state’s death pen- alty law unconstitutional. She said it was a matter of upholding the law; her critics asked whether she would have similarly defended segregation and statutes against interracial marriage. Now Ms. Harris is running for president as a “progressive pros- ecutor.” She says she sees no con- tradiction in the term, arguing that a tough prosecutor can also be a force for reforming the crimi- nal-justice system. But already, HARRIS RESISTS EASY DEFINITION Record as Chief Lawyer Faces Chorus of Critics By KATE ZERNIKE THE LONG RUN Continued on Page A10 BEIRUT, Lebanon — The prin- cess known as Sheikha Latifa had not left Dubai, the glittering emir- ate ruled by her father, in 18 years. Her requests to travel and study elsewhere had been denied. Her passport had been taken away. Her friends’ apartments were for- bidden to her, her palace off-limits to them. At 32, Sheikha Latifa bint Mo- hammed al-Maktoum went no- where without a watchful chauf- feur. “There’s no justice here,” she said in a video she secretly re- corded last year. “Especially if you’re a female, your life is so dis- posable.” So it was with a jolt of astonish- ment that her friends overseas read a WhatsApp message from her last March announcing that she had left Dubai “for good.” “Is this real,” one of them, an American sky diver named Chris Colwell, messaged back. “Where are you.” “Free,” she responded. “And I’ll come see you soon.” She added a heart. Her escape — planned over sev- eral years with the help of a Finn- ish capoeira trainer and a self-pro- claimed French ex-spy — lasted less than a week. Within a few days of setting sail on the Indian Ocean in the French- man’s yacht, bound for India and then the United States, the sheikha went silent. She has not been seen since, except in a few photos released in December by her family, which says she is safely home after surviving what they said was a kidnapping. Yet thanks to the video she made before fleeing, her face and voice have made their way around the world, drawing more than two million views on YouTube, spurring avid news coverage and Emirati Princess Tried to Flee. Video Suggests Failure’s Price. By VIVIAN YEE Sheikha Latifa bint Moham- med al-Maktoum fled last year. Continued on Page A6 ARASH KHAMOOSHI FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES Tabiat Bridge in Tehran. The fervor of four decades ago has eased as many Iranians have quietly rebelled against strict rules. Page A4. The Revolution at 40 MIAMI — For 60 years, the lifeblood of Miami’s idiosyncratic politics has been Cuba, the com- munist government’s countless sins denounced in street protests, dissected on the spirited Spanish- language airwaves and con- demned at campaign rallies under the unifying cry of “Viva Cuba Li- bre!” But the focus of this city’s free- dom-loving fervor has recently moved farther south. Venezuela, not Cuba, now domi- nates Miami’s political conversa- tion. A television anchor not long ago ended a somber segment with a promise to keep praying for the troubled South American country. Venezuelans in the city have gath- ered for demonstrations to co- incide with protests back home. Even the Miami-Dade County Commission, a local body with no control over foreign policy, voted unanimously to recognize the op- position leader Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s interim president. The shift has been coming on gradually for years, but it has ac- celerated in recent weeks as Vene- zuela has sunk further into crisis and its leftist president, Nicolás Maduro, has clung defiantly to power. The showdown in Caracas is reshaping Latino politics in South Florida, home to the highest concentration of Venezuelans in the United States. The change is not a mere demo- graphic curiosity. In Florida, where major elections have re- peatedly been decided by tiny Venezuela’s Moment Is Up for Grabs in Miami By PATRICIA MAZZEI As Democrats Dither, G.O.P. Seizes Crisis to Engage Latinos Venezuelans rallied in support of the opposition leader Juan Guaidó in Doral, Fla., this month. SAUL MARTINEZ FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES Continued on Page A13 WASHINGTON — Of the few hints to emerge from the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, about evidence of possible collu- sion between President Trump’s campaign and Russia, one of the most tantalizing surfaced almost in passing in a Washington court- room last week. Comments by one of Mr. Muel- ler’s lead prosecutors, disclosed in a transcript of a closed-door hear- ing, suggest that the special coun- sel continues to pursue at least one theory: that starting while Russia was taking steps to bolster Mr. Trump’s candidacy, people in his orbit were discussing deals to end a dispute over Russia’s incur- sions into Ukraine and possibly give Moscow relief from economic sanctions imposed by the United States and its allies. The theory was offered almost as an aside by the prosecutor, An- drew Weissmann, during a discus- sion of contacts between Mr. Trump’s former campaign chair- man, Paul Manafort, and a long- time Russian associate, Kon- stantin V. Kilimnik, whom investi- gators have linked to Russian in- telligence. A closer look at the transcript, released late Thursday, shows that the prosecutors have been keenly focused on discussions the two men had about a plan to end the conflict that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and annex- ation of Crimea in 2014. Persuad- ing the United States to ease or end the American-led sanctions imposed to punish Moscow for its aggression has been a primary goal of Russian foreign policy. According to the transcript, which was heavily redacted, Mr. Manafort and Mr. Kilimnik re- peatedly communicated about a so-called peace plan for Ukraine starting in early August 2016, while Mr. Manafort was still run- ning Mr. Trump’s campaign, and continuing into 2018, months after Mr. Manafort had been charged In Cryptic Hint, Mueller’s Team Tips Its Hand Russian Sanctions Are at ‘Heart’ of Inquiry This article is by Sharon LaFra- niere, Kenneth P. Vogel and Scott Shane. Continued on Page A14 WASHINGTON — Congres- sional efforts to reach a border se- curity deal ahead of another gov- ernment shutdown broke down on Sunday over Democratic de- mands to limit the detention of un- documented immigrants, as Pres- ident Trump moved more troops to the border and prepared to rally supporters in Texas on Monday. The 17 House and Senate nego- tiators had hoped to finalize a bor- der security agreement on Mon- day, but hours before that dead- line, communications had stopped, lawmakers and aides said. Meantime, the Trump adminis- tration was moving on its own to fortify the southwestern border with thousands of active-duty mil- itary troops. The number of de- ployed troops on the Mexican bor- der was set to exceed the high of 5,900 reached around the Novem- ber elections, as about 3,700 ac- tive-duty troops were being sent to assist with the Department of Homeland Security’s border pa- trol efforts. Senior officers are voicing greater worries that the deployed troops are not conducting the training needed for their regular missions, while other military units must now pick up the routine duties on behalf of their deployed colleagues. But efforts to reach a broader, bipartisan deal on border security bogged down, days before much of the government is set to run out of funds at midnight Friday, with SHUTDOWN LOOMS AS BORDER TALKS REACH AN IMPASSE DISCORD ON DETENTIONS Trump Moves to Deploy Thousands of Troops Near Mexico This article is by Emily Cochrane, Maggie Haberman and Eric Schmitt. Continued on Page A13 KLOBUCHAR JUMPS IN Senator Amy Klobuchar joined the grow- ing presidential scrum. PAGE A11 BRISTLING ON BORDER Residents of El Paso won’t all welcome the president’s rally there. PAGE A9 As elections near, political cash infuses India’s Kumbh Mela festival, which involves a holy dip. PAGE A5 INTERNATIONAL A4-8 Chasing Votes Into the Ganges Detoured storms delivered the city’s snowiest February in 70 years. PAGE A14 NATIONAL A9-14 Snows Smack Seattle A dropped charge in a Queens murder case has prompted criticism of a new law decriminalizing abortion. PAGE A17 NEW YORK A15-17 Abortion Law Questioned The awards show was aiming for a more inclusive ceremony, and list of honorees, than in the past. Brandi Carlile, above, was among the winners. PAGE C1 ARTS C1-7 A Grammy for Me? Many of the up-and-coming start-ups poised to be the next tech darlings largely focus on software for specific industries like farms, banks and life sciences companies. PAGE B1 BUSINESS B1-10 The Next Unicorns Amateur hockey teams far outnumber goaltenders in Toronto, leading to an unusual marketplace. PAGE D1 SPORTSMONDAY D1-6 Rent a Goalie (and Save Big) At fashion week, Vanessa Friedman finds a good kind of tribalism. FASHION C8 Stylish Subcultures Seoul agreed to increase its contribu- tion to sharing the cost of the United States military presence. PAGE A8 Splitting the Bill in South Korea The city’s Housing Authority chairman broke with the mayor over a deal made with the federal government. PAGE A15 Ally Pans Public Housing Deal The central bank’s signal that it might not keep raising interest rates had a calming effect on investors and markets near and far. PAGE B1 The Fed’s Soothing Shift David Leonhardt PAGE A19 EDITORIAL, OP-ED A18-19 Late Edition Today, mostly cloudy, high 39. To- night, overcast, a bit of snow late, low 27. Tomorrow, snow turning to ice, accumulating 1- to 3 inches, high 35. Weather map is on Page B8. $3.00
Transcript of Mueller s Team In Cryptic Hint, · 11/02/2019 · SAN FRANCISCO amala K ... you re a female, your...
VOL. CLXVIII . . . No. 58,235 © 2019 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2019
C M Y K Nxxx,2019-02-11,A,001,Bs-4C,E2
U(D54G1D)y+z!/!#!=!;
ONANCOCK, Va. — When theUnited States Supreme Court or-dered school districts in 1968 todismantle their segregated class-rooms, Wescott and NancyNortham had a choice to make.
As in much of the rest of thecountry, private schools hadpopped up in the Northams’ com-munity on Virginia’s EasternShore. They were havens forwhite parents who did not wanttheir children in the same class-rooms as black students. Mr.Northam was a lawyer, his wife a
nurse, so that option was wellwithin their means.
But the Northams — whose an-cestors were among the manywhite slaveowners to lay roots inthis rich agricultural region in theearly 1800s — made what seemedlike a surprising decision for peo-ple of their stature.
They kept their sons, Thomasand Ralph, in public schools.
In a region where black andwhite people largely lived in dif-ferent communities, RalphNortham hung around blackneighborhoods with black friends.He was one of two white playerson the high school basketball team
in 1977, his senior year. His classhad 73 students — 37 black, 36white.
“When Ralph came up, we werechasing footballs,” said RobertGarris Jr., who is black and afriend from childhood. “We werechasing basketballs, baseballs.We were fishing. We were crab-bing. We didn’t see race.”
Many people are now wonder-ing how this same RalphNortham, now the governor ofVirginia, could be the man whoended up with a racist photographon his page in a medical-schoolyearbook. How he could have
In Northam’s Youth, Clues to His Views on RaceBy JOHN ELIGON
and ELIZABETH WILLIAMSON
Continued on Page A12
SAN FRANCISCO — KamalaHarris was three months into hertenure as San Francisco districtattorney in 2004 when a gangmember killed a police officerwith a hail of bullets from anAK-47. Her announcement withinthree days of the murder that shewould not seek the death penaltyset off protests from her fellowDemocrats as well as from the po-lice.
Senator Dianne Feinstein stoodin front of thousands of mourners
at the officer’s funeral at St.Mary’s Cathedral and urged her tochange her mind; Jerry Brown,the once and future governor, wasamong those standing in ovation.The state attorney general threat-ened to take over the case, andSenator Barbara Boxer asked theJustice Department to prosecuteit.
Ms. Harris, the first person ofcolor elected as this city’s districtattorney, declared her decision amatter of principle: The deathpenalty, she believed, discrimi-nated against poor and black peo-ple and would not deter morekilling.
But death penalty opponentswondered a decade later wherethat principle had gone when asCalifornia’s attorney general Ms.Harris appealed a judge’s decisiondeclaring the state’s death pen-alty law unconstitutional. She saidit was a matter of upholding thelaw; her critics asked whether shewould have similarly defendedsegregation and statutes againstinterracial marriage.
Now Ms. Harris is running forpresident as a “progressive pros-ecutor.” She says she sees no con-tradiction in the term, arguingthat a tough prosecutor can alsobe a force for reforming the crimi-nal-justice system. But already,
HARRIS RESISTSEASY DEFINITION
Record as Chief LawyerFaces Chorus of Critics
By KATE ZERNIKE
THE LONG RUN
Continued on Page A10
BEIRUT, Lebanon — The prin-cess known as Sheikha Latifa hadnot left Dubai, the glittering emir-ate ruled by her father, in 18 years.Her requests to travel and studyelsewhere had been denied. Herpassport had been taken away.Her friends’ apartments were for-bidden to her, her palace off-limitsto them.
At 32, Sheikha Latifa bint Mo-hammed al-Maktoum went no-where without a watchful chauf-feur.
“There’s no justice here,” shesaid in a video she secretly re-corded last year. “Especially ifyou’re a female, your life is so dis-posable.”
So it was with a jolt of astonish-ment that her friends overseasread a WhatsApp message fromher last March announcing thatshe had left Dubai “for good.”
“Is this real,” one of them, anAmerican sky diver named ChrisColwell, messaged back. “Whereare you.”
“Free,” she responded. “And I’llcome see you soon.” She added aheart.
Her escape — planned over sev-eral years with the help of a Finn-ish capoeira trainer and a self-pro-claimed French ex-spy — lastedless than a week.
Within a few days of setting sail
on the Indian Ocean in the French-man’s yacht, bound for India andthen the United States, thesheikha went silent. She has notbeen seen since, except in a fewphotos released in December byher family, which says she issafely home after surviving whatthey said was a kidnapping.
Yet thanks to the video shemade before fleeing, her face andvoice have made their way aroundthe world, drawing more than twomillion views on YouTube,spurring avid news coverage and
Emirati Princess Tried to Flee.Video Suggests Failure’s Price.
By VIVIAN YEE
Sheikha Latifa bint Moham-med al-Maktoum fled last year.
Continued on Page A6
ARASH KHAMOOSHI FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Tabiat Bridge in Tehran. The fervor of four decades ago has eased as many Iranians have quietly rebelled against strict rules. Page A4.The Revolution at 40
MIAMI — For 60 years, thelifeblood of Miami’s idiosyncraticpolitics has been Cuba, the com-munist government’s countlesssins denounced in street protests,dissected on the spirited Spanish-language airwaves and con-demned at campaign rallies underthe unifying cry of “Viva Cuba Li-bre!”
But the focus of this city’s free-dom-loving fervor has recentlymoved farther south.
Venezuela, not Cuba, now domi-nates Miami’s political conversa-tion. A television anchor not long
ago ended a somber segment witha promise to keep praying for thetroubled South American country.Venezuelans in the city have gath-ered for demonstrations to co-incide with protests back home.Even the Miami-Dade CountyCommission, a local body with nocontrol over foreign policy, votedunanimously to recognize the op-
position leader Juan Guaidó asVenezuela’s interim president.
The shift has been coming ongradually for years, but it has ac-celerated in recent weeks as Vene-zuela has sunk further into crisisand its leftist president, NicolásMaduro, has clung defiantly topower. The showdown in Caracasis reshaping Latino politics inSouth Florida, home to the highestconcentration of Venezuelans inthe United States.
The change is not a mere demo-graphic curiosity. In Florida,where major elections have re-peatedly been decided by tiny
Venezuela’s Moment Is Up for Grabs in MiamiBy PATRICIA MAZZEI As Democrats Dither,
G.O.P. Seizes Crisisto Engage Latinos
Venezuelans rallied in support of the opposition leader Juan Guaidó in Doral, Fla., this month.SAUL MARTINEZ FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Continued on Page A13
WASHINGTON — Of the fewhints to emerge from the specialcounsel, Robert S. Mueller III,about evidence of possible collu-sion between President Trump’scampaign and Russia, one of themost tantalizing surfaced almostin passing in a Washington court-room last week.
Comments by one of Mr. Muel-ler’s lead prosecutors, disclosed ina transcript of a closed-door hear-ing, suggest that the special coun-sel continues to pursue at leastone theory: that starting whileRussia was taking steps to bolsterMr. Trump’s candidacy, people inhis orbit were discussing deals toend a dispute over Russia’s incur-sions into Ukraine and possiblygive Moscow relief from economicsanctions imposed by the UnitedStates and its allies.
The theory was offered almostas an aside by the prosecutor, An-drew Weissmann, during a discus-sion of contacts between Mr.Trump’s former campaign chair-man, Paul Manafort, and a long-time Russian associate, Kon-stantin V. Kilimnik, whom investi-gators have linked to Russian in-telligence.
A closer look at the transcript,released late Thursday, showsthat the prosecutors have beenkeenly focused on discussions thetwo men had about a plan to endthe conflict that followed Russia’sinvasion of Ukraine and annex-ation of Crimea in 2014. Persuad-ing the United States to ease orend the American-led sanctionsimposed to punish Moscow for itsaggression has been a primarygoal of Russian foreign policy.
According to the transcript,which was heavily redacted, Mr.Manafort and Mr. Kilimnik re-peatedly communicated about aso-called peace plan for Ukrainestarting in early August 2016,while Mr. Manafort was still run-ning Mr. Trump’s campaign, andcontinuing into 2018, months afterMr. Manafort had been charged
In Cryptic Hint,Mueller’s Team
Tips Its Hand
Russian Sanctions Areat ‘Heart’ of Inquiry
This article is by Sharon LaFra-niere, Kenneth P. Vogel and ScottShane.
Continued on Page A14
WASHINGTON — Congres-sional efforts to reach a border se-curity deal ahead of another gov-ernment shutdown broke down onSunday over Democratic de-mands to limit the detention of un-documented immigrants, as Pres-ident Trump moved more troopsto the border and prepared to rallysupporters in Texas on Monday.
The 17 House and Senate nego-tiators had hoped to finalize a bor-der security agreement on Mon-day, but hours before that dead-line, communications hadstopped, lawmakers and aidessaid.
Meantime, the Trump adminis-tration was moving on its own tofortify the southwestern borderwith thousands of active-duty mil-itary troops. The number of de-ployed troops on the Mexican bor-der was set to exceed the high of5,900 reached around the Novem-ber elections, as about 3,700 ac-tive-duty troops were being sentto assist with the Department ofHomeland Security’s border pa-trol efforts.
Senior officers are voicinggreater worries that the deployedtroops are not conducting thetraining needed for their regularmissions, while other militaryunits must now pick up the routineduties on behalf of their deployedcolleagues.
But efforts to reach a broader,bipartisan deal on border securitybogged down, days before muchof the government is set to run outof funds at midnight Friday, with
SHUTDOWN LOOMSAS BORDER TALKSREACH AN IMPASSE
DISCORD ON DETENTIONS
Trump Moves to DeployThousands of Troops
Near Mexico
This article is by Emily Cochrane,Maggie Haberman and EricSchmitt.
Continued on Page A13
KLOBUCHAR JUMPS IN SenatorAmy Klobuchar joined the grow-ing presidential scrum. PAGE A11
BRISTLING ON BORDER Residentsof El Paso won’t all welcome thepresident’s rally there. PAGE A9
As elections near, political cash infusesIndia’s Kumbh Mela festival, whichinvolves a holy dip. PAGE A5
INTERNATIONAL A4-8
Chasing Votes Into the GangesDetoured storms delivered the city’ssnowiest February in 70 years. PAGE A14
NATIONAL A9-14
Snows Smack Seattle
A dropped charge in a Queens murdercase has prompted criticism of a newlaw decriminalizing abortion. PAGE A17
NEW YORK A15-17
Abortion Law Questioned
The awards show was aiming for a moreinclusive ceremony, and list of honorees,than in the past. Brandi Carlile, above,was among the winners. PAGE C1
ARTS C1-7
A Grammy for Me?
Many of the up-and-coming start-upspoised to be the next tech darlingslargely focus on software for specificindustries like farms, banks and lifesciences companies. PAGE B1
BUSINESS B1-10
The Next Unicorns
Amateur hockey teams far outnumbergoaltenders in Toronto, leading to anunusual marketplace. PAGE D1
SPORTSMONDAY D1-6
Rent a Goalie (and Save Big)
At fashion week, Vanessa Friedmanfinds a good kind of tribalism.
FASHION C8
Stylish SubculturesSeoul agreed to increase its contribu-tion to sharing the cost of the UnitedStates military presence. PAGE A8
Splitting the Bill in South Korea
The city’s Housing Authority chairmanbroke with the mayor over a deal madewith the federal government. PAGE A15
Ally Pans Public Housing Deal
The central bank’s signal that it mightnot keep raising interest rates had acalming effect on investors and marketsnear and far. PAGE B1
The Fed’s Soothing Shift
David Leonhardt PAGE A19
EDITORIAL, OP-ED A18-19
Late EditionToday, mostly cloudy, high 39. To-night, overcast, a bit of snow late,low 27. Tomorrow, snow turning toice, accumulating 1- to 3 inches, high35. Weather map is on Page B8.
$3.00
