TOP U.S. SECRETS APPROVAL TO VIEW KUSHNER … · Top-secret clearances are ... gun grabbers. ......
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VOL. CLXVII . . . No. 57,972 © 2018 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, THURSDAY, MAY 24, 2018 U(D54G1D)y+?!=!&!#!: WASHINGTON — Jared Kush- ner, President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, has been granted his permanent security clearance, a person briefed on the matter said on Wednesday, ending a period of uncertainty that had fueled questions about whether Mr. Kushner was in peril in the special counsel investigation. Mr. Kushner is a senior presi- dential aide with a prominent role in Middle East diplomacy. But his F.B.I. background checks dragged on for a year and became one of many political distractions for the White House. Even some inside the administration suspected that Mr. Kushner’s delay reflected le- gal problems on the horizon. The permanent clearances make Mr. Kushner, who is married to Mr. Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump, eligible to view some of the United States’ most closely guarded secrets, including the daily intelligence briefing that Mr. Trump receives and the delicate intelligence on the Israelis and the Palestinians that former diplo- mats said can be valuable in nego- tiations. Top-secret clearances are typically required for people view- ing foreign intelligence or sitting in on high-level White House meetings. White House officials were ada- mant that the lengthy process was not unusual for a government offi- cial who has a complicated finan- cial history and many foreign con- tacts. But with the special counsel investigating some of Mr. Kushn- er’s meetings with Russian offi- cials, it left open the question of whether investigators had uncov- ered evidence that made him a se- curity threat. The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, is investigating whether anyone around Mr. Trump conspired with the Rus- sian government to help influence the outcome of the 2016 presiden- tial election. Mr. Kushner’s meet- ings with the Russian ambassa- dor, a Kremlin-connected lawyer and a prominent Russian banker have all attracted scrutiny. The resolution of his clearances does not guarantee that Mr. Kush- ner faces no legal jeopardy. But Mark S. Zaid, a veteran Washing- ton lawyer who handles security KUSHNER IS GIVEN APPROVAL TO VIEW TOP U.S. SECRETS PERMANENT CLEARANCE Delays Fanned Questions of Legal Jeopardy in Mueller Inquiry By MATT APUZZO Continued on Page A17 Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser. TOM BRENNER/THE NEW YORK TIMES One might as well come out and say it: The death of Philip Roth signifies, in its way, the end of a cultural era as definitively as the death of Pablo Picasso did in 1973. Roth, who died Tuesday evening at 85, was the last front-rank survivor of a genera- tion of fecund and authoritative and, yes, white and male nov- elists — the others included John Updike, Norman Mailer and Saul Bellow — who helped define American experience in the second half of the 20th century. Updike had more sheer talent, Bellow more moxie. But it be- came increasingly apparent in the late stage of Roth’s career — as he turned on the afterburners, writing 11 novels, several of them masterpieces, between 1995 and 2010 — that he was leaving his cohort behind. When one considers the di- mensions of Roth’s late streak, it’s hard not to recall a moment in “The Human Stain,” his 2000 novel, in which his longtime fictional stand-in, Nathan Zuck- erman, goes to Tanglewood one Saturday morning to hear an open rehearsal. Music has replaced sex as the great pleasure of the aging Zuck- erman’s life. As he listens to a “sturdy little barrel of an unshav- en Russian Jew” play the piano, he reports: “When he’s finished, I thought, they’ll have to throw the thing out. He crushes it. He doesn’t let that piano conceal a thing. Whatever’s in there is going to come out, and come out with its hands in the air.” Roth did a similar kind of crushing and revealing. His work A Born Spellbinder and a Peerless Chronicler of Sex and Death Continued on Page A29 DWIGHT GARNER AN APPRAISAL MADDIE McGARVEY FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES Amy McGrath, right, an ex-Marine pilot, faced headwinds from leaders of her own party to notch an unexpected win in the Democratic primary for a congressional district in Kentucky. Page A19. Ready for Another Mission IAN WILLMS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES A fentanyl user and his girlfriend at a supervised injection site in Toronto. New York is interested in opening similar centers. Page A24. Battling Opioid Overdoses When an explosion nearly razed Iran’s long-range missile research facility in 2011 — and killed the military scientist who ran it — many Western intelli- gence analysts viewed it as devastating to Tehran’s techno- logical ambitions. Since then, there has been little indication of Iranian work on a missile that could reach significantly beyond the Middle East, and Iranian leaders have said they do not intend to build one. So, this spring, when a team of California-based weapons re- searchers reviewed new Iranian state TV programs glorifying the military scientist, they expected a history lesson with, at most, new details on a long-dormant program. Instead, they stumbled on a series of clues that led them to a startling conclusion: Shortly before his death, the scientist, Gen. Hassan Tehrani Moghad- dam, oversaw the development of a secret, second facility in the remote Iranian desert that, they say, is operating to this day. For weeks, the researchers picked through satellite photos of the facility. They found, they say, that work on the site now ap- pears to focus on advanced rocket engines and rocket fuel, and is often conducted under cover of night. It is possible that the facility is developing only medium-range missiles, which Iran already possesses, or perhaps an unusu- ally sophisticated space pro- gram. But an analysis of structures and ground markings at the facility strongly suggests, though does not prove, that it is develop- ing the technology for long-range missiles, the researchers say. Such a program would not Deep in Desert, Iran Quietly Works on Missiles Researchers See Signs That an Old Program Has Been Revived Continued on Page A13 MAX FISHER THE INTERPRETER After the body of Jesse Lewis, age 6, was recovered from his classroom at Sandy Hook Ele- mentary School, his father, Neil Heslin, cradled him for a final time. At the top of Jesse’s forehead was the gunshot wound that ended his life. “It meant a lot to be able to see him,” Mr. Heslin said in an interview. “When he was born, I was the first to see him, and I was the last one to hold him.” Alex Jones, an online conspir- acy theorist whose InfoWars web- site is viewed by millions, seized on this agonizing recollection to repeat the bizarre falsehood that the 2012 shooting that killed 20 first graders and six adults at the elementary school in Newtown, Conn., was an elaborate hoax in- vented by government-backed “gun grabbers.” On his radio show, Mr. Jones said Mr. Heslin needed to clarify “because the coroner said no, the parents weren’t allowed to have touched the kids or have seen the kids.” He played a video in which the InfoWars “reporter” Owen Shroyer says of Mr. Heslin, “He’s claiming that he held his son and saw the bullet hole in his head.” “That is not possible,” Mr. Shroyer said. More than five years after one of the most horrific mass shoot- ings in modern history, the fam- ilies of Sandy Hook victims are still enduring daily threats and on- line abuse from people who be- lieve bogus theories spread by Mr. Jones, whom President Trump Sandy Hook Suits Target Fabulist And Online ‘Post Truth’ Culture By ELIZABETH WILLIAMSON Continued on Page A16 The new leader of New York City’s subway may know exactly how to fix the tattered system, but navigating the morass of the state’s political class has already emerged as a much bigger chal- lenge. On Wednesday, Andy Byford, who arrived in January after run- ning Toronto’s transit system, un- veiled his vision for finally build- ing a reliable subway. But the scale of the work and its potential price tag of more than $19 billion were staggering and Mr. Byford immediately found himself caught in the bitter rivalry between Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio, who have repeatedly clashed over who should pay to re- habilitate the subway. Mr. Byford’s plan is ambitious: an aggressive rollout of new sig- nals on some of the city’s busiest lines; a wave of station closings during nights and weekends to do the work; new elevators at 50 ad- ditional stations. If Mr. Byford is able to pull it off, the overhaul could mean substantial improve- Plan to Repair Subway Lands In Political Bog By EMMA G. FITZSIMMONS Continued on Page A22 Seeking to end a political con- troversy that has embarrassed professional football, the N.F.L.’s team owners on Wednesday held that players could no longer kneel during the national anthem with- out leaving themselves open to punishment or their teams facing possible financial penalties. But the league also said the new policy would not force athletes to stand on the sideline during the anthem; it would give them the option of staying in the locker room during the pregame ceremo- ny. Almost immediately after pas- sage, questions arose about how it would be enforced. The policy is an attempt to find a middle ground on a divisive is- sue that has shaken the country’s most successful sport for nearly two years, beginning when the former San Francisco 49ers quar- terback Colin Kaepernick knelt during the national anthem to pro- test police violence against minor- ities and economic inequality. President Trump escalated the is- sue a year later as he attacked kneeling players as unpatriotic, a stand that is believed to have con- tributed to a decline in television ratings. Roger Goodell, the commis- sioner of the N.F.L., said the pro- tests, which began in the summer of 2016, created a “false percep- tion among many that thousands of N.F.L. players were unpatriot- ic.” He added, “The new policy will keep our focus on the game and the extraordinary athletes who play it — and on our fans who en- joy it.” But if the N.F.L. had hoped to quiet the debate, instead people on opposite sides appeared to dig in further after Wednesday’s an- nouncement. In a strongly worded statement issued just minutes after the N.F.L.’s announcement, the N.F.L. Players Association said the league had not consulted the play- ers’ union in creating the new pro- tocol and accused league officials of hypocrisy. “The vote by N.F.L. club C.E.O.s today contradicts the statements made to our player leadership by Commissioner Roger Goodell and the Chairman of the N.F.L.’s Man- agement Council John Mara about the principles, values and patrio- tism of our League,” the statement said. George Atallah, the union’s All Must Rise For Anthem, N.F.L. Insists Players Can Stand or Stay in Locker Room By MATTHEW FUTTERMAN and VICTOR MATHER Continued on Page A15 Giuseppe Conte, left, is poised to be- come the new prime minister. PAGE A10 INTERNATIONAL A4-13 Italy’s Populists Get Green Light Fame arrived without warning for the 19-year-old bedroom pop singer — and the haters were quick to follow. PAGE C1 ARTS C1-10 Clairo, 15 Million Views Later Somewhere in Robert Indiana’s home, an early version of his iconic artwork may use four different letters. PAGE C1 A Precursor to ‘Love’ A government official singled out com- ments from Vice President Mike Pence as “ignorant,” casting more doubts on talks planned for June. PAGE A6 Pence Angers North Korea Two female battalion chiefs sued the Fairfax County, Va., fire department, saying they were retaliated against for trying to end harassment. PAGE A14 NATIONAL A14-20 Firefighters Claim Gender Bias A federal judge in Manhattan ruled that President Trump’s practice of blocking Twitter users who criticize him was unconstitutional. PAGE B1 BUSINESS DAY B1-7 Trump Guilty of Illegal Blocks In the aftermath of the gymnastics abuse scandal, Congress took a hard look at the Olympic committee. PAGE B8 SPORTSTHURSDAY B8-12 Fiery Hearing for U.S.O.C. A top Bay Area high school basketball coach shares her thoughts on Golden State’s Game 4 breakdown. PAGE B8 Dissecting a Warriors Collapse Nicholas Kristof PAGE A31 EDITORIAL, OP-ED A30-31 A study shows that rice grown in higher levels of carbon dioxide has lower amounts of nutrients. PAGE A19 New Climate Change Concern Offshore wind farms, long ignored in the United States, are gaining a foothold in Massachusetts. PAGE B1 The Wind Shifts Long before the ban on sports betting ended, Monmouth Park bet big that the law would be on its side. PAGE A21 NEW YORK A21-29 Payoff for a New Jersey Bar As a film about André Leon Talley opens, the pioneering editor talks race, money and weight battles. PAGE D1 THURSDAY STYLES D1-8 Fashion Icon Speaks His Truth POLICY FUMBLE The rule is likely to please no one but the owners, Ken Belson writes. PAGE B9 Late Edition Today, plenty of sunshine, a rather warm day, high 80. Tonight, clear, mild, low 61. Tomorrow, mostly sunny, very warm, more humid, high 87. Weather map, Page A26. $3.00
Transcript of TOP U.S. SECRETS APPROVAL TO VIEW KUSHNER … · Top-secret clearances are ... gun grabbers. ......
VOL. CLXVII . . . No. 57,972 © 2018 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, THURSDAY, MAY 24, 2018
C M Y K Nxxx,2018-05-24,A,001,Bs-4C,E2
U(D54G1D)y+?!=!&!#!:
WASHINGTON — Jared Kush-ner, President Trump’s son-in-lawand senior adviser, has beengranted his permanent securityclearance, a person briefed on thematter said on Wednesday, endinga period of uncertainty that hadfueled questions about whetherMr. Kushner was in peril in thespecial counsel investigation.
Mr. Kushner is a senior presi-dential aide with a prominent rolein Middle East diplomacy. But hisF.B.I. background checks draggedon for a year and became one ofmany political distractions for theWhite House. Even some insidethe administration suspected thatMr. Kushner’s delay reflected le-gal problems on the horizon.
The permanent clearancesmake Mr. Kushner, who is marriedto Mr. Trump’s daughter IvankaTrump, eligible to view some ofthe United States’ most closelyguarded secrets, including thedaily intelligence briefing that Mr.Trump receives and the delicateintelligence on the Israelis and thePalestinians that former diplo-mats said can be valuable in nego-
tiations. Top-secret clearances aretypically required for people view-ing foreign intelligence or sittingin on high-level White Housemeetings.
White House officials were ada-mant that the lengthy process wasnot unusual for a government offi-cial who has a complicated finan-cial history and many foreign con-tacts. But with the special counselinvestigating some of Mr. Kushn-er’s meetings with Russian offi-cials, it left open the question ofwhether investigators had uncov-ered evidence that made him a se-curity threat.
The special counsel, Robert S.Mueller III, is investigatingwhether anyone around Mr.Trump conspired with the Rus-sian government to help influencethe outcome of the 2016 presiden-tial election. Mr. Kushner’s meet-ings with the Russian ambassa-dor, a Kremlin-connected lawyerand a prominent Russian bankerhave all attracted scrutiny.
The resolution of his clearancesdoes not guarantee that Mr. Kush-ner faces no legal jeopardy. ButMark S. Zaid, a veteran Washing-ton lawyer who handles security
KUSHNER IS GIVENAPPROVAL TO VIEWTOP U.S. SECRETS
PERMANENT CLEARANCE
Delays Fanned Questionsof Legal Jeopardy in
Mueller Inquiry
By MATT APUZZO
Continued on Page A17
Jared Kushner, the president’sson-in-law and senior adviser.
TOM BRENNER/THE NEW YORK TIMES
One might as well come outand say it: The death of PhilipRoth signifies, in its way, the end
of a cultural era asdefinitively as thedeath of PabloPicasso did in 1973.
Roth, who diedTuesday evening at85, was the last
front-rank survivor of a genera-tion of fecund and authoritativeand, yes, white and male nov-
elists — the others included JohnUpdike, Norman Mailer and SaulBellow — who helped defineAmerican experience in thesecond half of the 20th century.
Updike had more sheer talent,Bellow more moxie. But it be-came increasingly apparent inthe late stage of Roth’s career —as he turned on the afterburners,writing 11 novels, several of themmasterpieces, between 1995 and2010 — that he was leaving his
cohort behind.When one considers the di-
mensions of Roth’s late streak,it’s hard not to recall a momentin “The Human Stain,” his 2000novel, in which his longtimefictional stand-in, Nathan Zuck-erman, goes to Tanglewood oneSaturday morning to hear anopen rehearsal.
Music has replaced sex as thegreat pleasure of the aging Zuck-erman’s life. As he listens to a
“sturdy little barrel of an unshav-en Russian Jew” play the piano,he reports: “When he’s finished,I thought, they’ll have to throwthe thing out. He crushes it. Hedoesn’t let that piano conceal athing. Whatever’s in there isgoing to come out, and come outwith its hands in the air.”
Roth did a similar kind ofcrushing and revealing. His work
A Born Spellbinder and a Peerless Chronicler of Sex and Death
Continued on Page A29
DWIGHTGARNER
ANAPPRAISAL
MADDIE McGARVEY FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Amy McGrath, right, an ex-Marine pilot, faced headwinds from leaders of her own party to notchan unexpected win in the Democratic primary for a congressional district in Kentucky. Page A19.
Ready for Another Mission
IAN WILLMS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
A fentanyl user and his girlfriend at a supervised injection site in Toronto. New York is interested in opening similar centers. Page A24.Battling Opioid Overdoses
When an explosion nearlyrazed Iran’s long-range missileresearch facility in 2011 — andkilled the military scientist whoran it — many Western intelli-
gence analystsviewed it asdevastating toTehran’s techno-logical ambitions.
Since then,there has been
little indication of Iranian workon a missile that could reachsignificantly beyond the MiddleEast, and Iranian leaders havesaid they do not intend to buildone.
So, this spring, when a team ofCalifornia-based weapons re-searchers reviewed new Iranianstate TV programs glorifying the
military scientist, they expecteda history lesson with, at most,new details on a long-dormantprogram.
Instead, they stumbled on aseries of clues that led them to astartling conclusion: Shortlybefore his death, the scientist,Gen. Hassan Tehrani Moghad-dam, oversaw the developmentof a secret, second facility in theremote Iranian desert that, theysay, is operating to this day.
For weeks, the researcherspicked through satellite photos ofthe facility. They found, they say,that work on the site now ap-pears to focus on advancedrocket engines and rocket fuel,and is often conducted undercover of night.
It is possible that the facility isdeveloping only medium-rangemissiles, which Iran alreadypossesses, or perhaps an unusu-ally sophisticated space pro-gram.
But an analysis of structuresand ground markings at thefacility strongly suggests, thoughdoes not prove, that it is develop-ing the technology for long-rangemissiles, the researchers say.
Such a program would not
Deep in Desert, Iran Quietly Works on Missiles
Researchers See SignsThat an Old Program
Has Been Revived
Continued on Page A13
MAX FISHER
THEINTERPRETER
After the body of Jesse Lewis,age 6, was recovered from hisclassroom at Sandy Hook Ele-mentary School, his father, NeilHeslin, cradled him for a finaltime. At the top of Jesse’s foreheadwas the gunshot wound thatended his life. “It meant a lot to beable to see him,” Mr. Heslin said inan interview. “When he was born,I was the first to see him, and I wasthe last one to hold him.”
Alex Jones, an online conspir-acy theorist whose InfoWars web-site is viewed by millions, seizedon this agonizing recollection torepeat the bizarre falsehood thatthe 2012 shooting that killed 20first graders and six adults at theelementary school in Newtown,Conn., was an elaborate hoax in-vented by government-backed
“gun grabbers.”On his radio show, Mr. Jones
said Mr. Heslin needed to clarify“because the coroner said no, theparents weren’t allowed to havetouched the kids or have seen thekids.” He played a video in whichthe InfoWars “reporter” OwenShroyer says of Mr. Heslin, “He’sclaiming that he held his son andsaw the bullet hole in his head.”
“That is not possible,” Mr.Shroyer said.
More than five years after oneof the most horrific mass shoot-ings in modern history, the fam-ilies of Sandy Hook victims arestill enduring daily threats and on-line abuse from people who be-lieve bogus theories spread by Mr.Jones, whom President Trump
Sandy Hook Suits Target FabulistAnd Online ‘Post Truth’ Culture
By ELIZABETH WILLIAMSON
Continued on Page A16
The new leader of New YorkCity’s subway may know exactlyhow to fix the tattered system, butnavigating the morass of thestate’s political class has alreadyemerged as a much bigger chal-lenge.
On Wednesday, Andy Byford,who arrived in January after run-ning Toronto’s transit system, un-veiled his vision for finally build-ing a reliable subway. But thescale of the work and its potentialprice tag of more than $19 billionwere staggering and Mr. Byfordimmediately found himself caughtin the bitter rivalry between Gov.Andrew M. Cuomo and Mayor Billde Blasio, who have repeatedlyclashed over who should pay to re-habilitate the subway.
Mr. Byford’s plan is ambitious:an aggressive rollout of new sig-nals on some of the city’s busiestlines; a wave of station closingsduring nights and weekends to dothe work; new elevators at 50 ad-ditional stations. If Mr. Byford isable to pull it off, the overhaulcould mean substantial improve-
Plan to RepairSubway LandsIn Political Bog
By EMMA G. FITZSIMMONS
Continued on Page A22
Seeking to end a political con-troversy that has embarrassedprofessional football, the N.F.L.’steam owners on Wednesday heldthat players could no longer kneelduring the national anthem with-out leaving themselves open topunishment or their teams facingpossible financial penalties.
But the league also said the newpolicy would not force athletes tostand on the sideline during theanthem; it would give them theoption of staying in the lockerroom during the pregame ceremo-ny. Almost immediately after pas-sage, questions arose about how itwould be enforced.
The policy is an attempt to finda middle ground on a divisive is-sue that has shaken the country’smost successful sport for nearlytwo years, beginning when theformer San Francisco 49ers quar-terback Colin Kaepernick kneltduring the national anthem to pro-test police violence against minor-ities and economic inequality.President Trump escalated the is-sue a year later as he attackedkneeling players as unpatriotic, astand that is believed to have con-tributed to a decline in televisionratings.
Roger Goodell, the commis-sioner of the N.F.L., said the pro-tests, which began in the summerof 2016, created a “false percep-tion among many that thousandsof N.F.L. players were unpatriot-ic.” He added, “The new policy willkeep our focus on the game andthe extraordinary athletes whoplay it — and on our fans who en-joy it.”
But if the N.F.L. had hoped toquiet the debate, instead peopleon opposite sides appeared to digin further after Wednesday’s an-nouncement.
In a strongly worded statementissued just minutes after theN.F.L.’s announcement, the N.F.L.Players Association said theleague had not consulted the play-ers’ union in creating the new pro-tocol and accused league officialsof hypocrisy.
“The vote by N.F.L. club C.E.O.stoday contradicts the statementsmade to our player leadership byCommissioner Roger Goodell andthe Chairman of the N.F.L.’s Man-agement Council John Mara aboutthe principles, values and patrio-tism of our League,” the statementsaid. George Atallah, the union’s
All Must RiseFor Anthem,
N.F.L. Insists
Players Can Stand orStay in Locker Room
By MATTHEW FUTTERMANand VICTOR MATHER
Continued on Page A15
Giuseppe Conte, left, is poised to be-come the new prime minister. PAGE A10
INTERNATIONAL A4-13
Italy’s Populists Get Green LightFame arrived without warning for the19-year-old bedroom pop singer — andthe haters were quick to follow. PAGE C1
ARTS C1-10
Clairo, 15 Million Views Later
Somewhere in Robert Indiana’s home,an early version of his iconic artworkmay use four different letters. PAGE C1
A Precursor to ‘Love’A government official singled out com-ments from Vice President Mike Penceas “ignorant,” casting more doubts ontalks planned for June. PAGE A6
Pence Angers North Korea
Two female battalion chiefs sued theFairfax County, Va., fire department,saying they were retaliated against fortrying to end harassment. PAGE A14
NATIONAL A14-20
Firefighters Claim Gender BiasA federal judge in Manhattan ruled thatPresident Trump’s practice of blockingTwitter users who criticize him wasunconstitutional. PAGE B1
BUSINESS DAY B1-7
Trump Guilty of Illegal BlocksIn the aftermath of the gymnasticsabuse scandal, Congress took a hardlook at the Olympic committee. PAGE B8
SPORTSTHURSDAY B8-12
Fiery Hearing for U.S.O.C.
A top Bay Area high school basketballcoach shares her thoughts on GoldenState’s Game 4 breakdown. PAGE B8
Dissecting a Warriors Collapse
Nicholas Kristof PAGE A31
EDITORIAL, OP-ED A30-31
A study shows that rice grown in higherlevels of carbon dioxide has loweramounts of nutrients. PAGE A19
New Climate Change ConcernOffshore wind farms, long ignored inthe United States, are gaining a footholdin Massachusetts. PAGE B1
The Wind Shifts
Long before the ban on sports bettingended, Monmouth Park bet big that thelaw would be on its side. PAGE A21
NEW YORK A21-29
Payoff for a New Jersey BarAs a film about André Leon Talleyopens, the pioneering editor talks race,money and weight battles. PAGE D1
THURSDAY STYLES D1-8
Fashion Icon Speaks His Truth
POLICY FUMBLE The rule is likelyto please no one but the owners,Ken Belson writes. PAGE B9
Late EditionToday, plenty of sunshine, a ratherwarm day, high 80. Tonight, clear,mild, low 61. Tomorrow, mostlysunny, very warm, more humid,high 87. Weather map, Page A26.
$3.00
