Nxxx,2017-05-20,A,001,Bs-4C,E2
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Today, partly sunny, cooler, less humid, high 69. Tonight, partly cloudy,
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VOL. CLXVI . . . No. 57,603
$2.50
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MAY 20, 2017
© 2017 The New York Times Company
Leaving Stress TRUMP ADMITTED
As More Waits DISMISSAL AT F.B.I.
In Trip Abroad
EASED PRESSURE
Tumult at Home Raises
Stakes for President CALLED COMEY ‘NUT JOB’
By PETER BAKER
JONATHAN CORUM/THE NEW YORK TIMES
Antarctic Dispatches: A Continent at Risk
The Ross Ice Shelf, a floating chunk of ice the size of California, is stable for now. But a rapid disintegration of Antarctic ice could
raise the sea level by as much as six feet by the middle of the century, deluging major coastal cities, including New York. Page A11.
Peeking Inside Scandal in Brazil Raises Fear of Turmoil’s Return
largest food companies accused the matter.
A Nike Project:
him of taking about $4.6 million in
The bombshell made it clear
illegal campaign contributions — that the political and economic up‘Is This Legal?’ daysRIOago,
DE JANEIRO — Just a few have ignited broad calls for Mr. heaval in Latin America’s largest
Brazil seemed to be
By SIMON ROMERO
By MATT HART
Dathan Ritzenhein, an Olympic
distance runner for the United
States, was starting to feel sick
from his thyroid medication — a
drug that was not medically necessary but one that his coach, a
powerful and combative figure in
the sport, had strongly recommended to improve his performance.
The coach was Alberto Salazar,
a running legend himself who after his competitive career had
teamed up with Nike, the world’s
largest athletic apparel manufacturer, to train elite runners. He
was dismissive when Ritzenhein
expressed concerns, Ritzenhein
later said under oath. Salazar was
focused on revving Ritzenhein’s
endocrine system for a coming
race, he said, “instead of just
whatever was best for my health.”
The tension between Ritzenhein and Salazar over medical issues and methods of performance
enhancement was not uncommon
in the Oregon Project, the vaunted
team financed by Nike and led by
Salazar that includes some of the
world’s most celebrated runners.
Ritzenhein’s experience, along
with incidents involving several
other athletes, were laid out in vivid detail in a confidential report
written by the United States AntiDoping Agency that was obtained
by The New York Times.
The report, some aspects of
which have been reported by The
Times of London, describes, over
269 pages, a culture of coercion,
secrecy and possible medical malpractice in the Oregon Project, an
effort to make American distance
running relevant again on the international stage.
Salazar has emphatically denied violating antidoping rules.
He has said that he and his athContinued on Page A19
turning a corner. The stock market was soaring. Bankers were
cheering. The nation’s cutthroat
lawmakers were lining up to curb
spending. Inflation had been
tamed.
Brazil, it appeared, was finally
on the mend.
Then, in a matter of hours, it all
started falling apart. President
Michel Temer, long embroiled in
graft scandals, suddenly became
tangled in a new one, accused of
taking millions of dollars in illicit
payments and caught on tape discussing how to obstruct an anticorruption drive.
The allegations — including testimony released Friday in which
executives at one of the world’s
Temer’s resignation,
sent
markets whipsawing and set
off fears that
Brazil will slide
back into the
political
and
economic turmoil that has
rattled it for the Temer
last two years.
The testimony, released by the
Supreme Court, also described
tens of millions of dollars in illicit
payments into offshore accounts
intended to benefit his impeached
predecessor, Dilma Rousseff, and
her mentor, former President Luiz
Inácio Lula da Silva, both of whom
have denied any wrongdoing in
country is far from over. Mr.
Temer, who took over after Ms.
Rousseff’s ouster only a year ago,
is facing the biggest crisis of his already rocky presidency. Mr. da
Silva, who has been angling for a
comeback, was facing multiple
corruption investigations even
before the allegations were revealed on Friday.
On top of that, the politicians in
line to take over if Mr. Temer falls
— including the speaker of the
house and the leader of the Senate
— are also embroiled in corruption investigations, raising deep
concerns over the nation’s leadership and future.
“The damage done to our instiContinued on Page A8
WASHINGTON — The national board of the N.A.A.C.P.
voted Friday to dismiss the organization’s
president,
Cornell
William Brooks, after only three
years, pledging a “systemwide re-
Remarks to Russians in
the Oval Office a Day
After the Firing
This article is by Matt Apuzzo,
Maggie Haberman and Matthew
Rosenberg.
WASHINGTON — President
Trump told Russian officials in the
Oval Office this month that firing
the F.B.I. director, James B.
Comey, had relieved “great pressure” on him, according to a document summarizing the meeting.
“I just fired the head of the F.B.I.
He was crazy, a real nut job,” Mr.
Trump said, according to the document, which was read to The
New York Times by an American
official. “I faced great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off.”
Mr. Trump added, “I’m not under investigation.”
The conversation, during a May
10 meeting — the day after he fired
Mr. Comey — reinforces the notion that the president dismissed
him primarily because of the bureau’s investigation into possible
collusion between Mr. Trump’s
campaign and Russian operatives. Mr. Trump said as much in
one televised interview, but the
White House has offered changing justifications for the firing.
The comments represented an
extraordinary moment in the investigation, which centers in part
on the administration’s contacts
with Russian officials: A day after
firing the man leading that inquiry, Mr. Trump disparaged him —
to Russian officials.
The White House document
that contained Mr. Trump’s comments was based on notes taken
from inside the Oval Office and
has been circulated as the official
Continued on Page A14
COMEY WILL TESTIFY The former F.B.I. director James B. Comey has
agreed to appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee. PAGE A14
VISAS FOR INVESTORS The Kushner real estate firm has capitalized on
a lucrative program that critics say has little oversight. PAGE A18
Weiner Pleads Guilty in Case
That Rattled Clinton Campaign
By BENJAMIN WEISER and WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM
BEHROUZ MEHRI/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES
Heavy Turnout for Iranian Election
Voting was extended three times, seen as a plus for the incumbent, Hassan Rouhani. Page A7.
N.A.A.C.P., Energized by Liberal Activists, Dismisses Its President
By YAMICHE ALCINDOR
WASHINGTON — President
Trump embarked on Friday on his
first foreign mission since taking
office, beginning a challenging
nine-day, multistop, multifaceted
journey to the Middle East and
Europe and leaving behind a capital consumed by investigations
and intrigue.
Mr. Trump’s first stop will be Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he will
meet with dozens of Arab and
Muslim leaders. He will later travel to Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Vatican City, Brussels and finally Sicily before returning May 27.
An inaugural foreign trip would
have been daunting for a diplomatic novice under any circumstances, given the panoply of
complicated issues that will confront Mr. Trump, including terrorism, religion, economics, Middle
East peace, the war in Afghanistan, the future of NATO and
Russian aggression. But it will be
only more so given the distractions back home as a newly appointed special counsel begins
looking into any ties between Russia and Mr. Trump’s campaign.
In his final hours before leaving,
Mr. Trump was focused on picking
a new F.B.I. director to replace
James B. Comey, whom he fired
last week. While he had hoped to
name a replacement before the
trip, the president came to the
conclusion that he was not ready
to decide. Instead, that will be one
more question looming over him
as he jets across the world.
Mr. Trump has expressed dread
over the rigors of so much travel,
but professed enthusiasm as he
prepared to depart. “Getting
ready for my big foreign trip,” he
wrote on Twitter before leaving
the White House. “Will be
strongly protecting American inContinued on Page A16
fresh” at the nation’s largest and
most storied civil rights group in
order to confront President
Trump more vigorously.
Mr. Brooks, who said in an interview that he was “baffled” and
saddened by the decision, will
leave the organization at the end
of June when his contract expires.
The group will search for a new
leader while Leon W. Russell, the
chairman of the board, and Derrick Johnson, the vice chairman,
head up day-to-day operations.
The sudden change at the top of
the N.A.A.C.P. shows how the energy of liberal activists in the era
of President Trump is forcing up-
INTERNATIONAL A4-9
BUSINESS DAY B1-7
Assange Rape Case Is Dropped
Up Next: Murders and Musicals
Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder,
proclaimed vindication after Sweden
abandoned its inquiry, but he still faces
enormous legal challenges.
PAGE A7
Crime and singing — as well as the
military and the Bible — are among the
themes of this fall’s TV lineups. PAGE B1
NATIONAL A10-19
Standing Up to Ransomware
A Goodbye for General Lee
Some victims of a global hacking attack
are refusing to pay up to regain control
of their computers and data.
PAGE A9
Workers in New Orleans dismantled the
last of four monuments that paid tribute
to the Confederate era.
PAGE A10
heaval even in storied institutions
like a century-old civil rights stalwart. Mr. Brooks was hardly reserved in his own activism. He
was arrested in January for leading a sit-in at the Alabama office of
Senator Jeff Sessions, trying to
block his confirmation as attorney
Continued on Page A16
Anthony D. Weiner, the former
Democratic congressman whose
sexting scandals ended his political career and embroiled him in
a tumultuous F.B.I. investigation
of Hillary Clinton before the election, pleaded guilty to a felony on
Friday, crying openly as he admitted to conduct that he knew was
“as morally wrong as it was unlawful.”
The plea agreement ended a
federal investigation into a series
of sexually explicit pictures and
messages that Mr. Weiner sent
last year to a 15-year-old girl in
North Carolina.
It capped the long, tortured
downfall of Mr. Weiner, who ruined a once-promising career in
Congress and then spoiled various attempts at resurrecting his
reputation, all through his uncontrolled habit of using social media
and texts to send explicit images
to women.
It also cost him his marriage:
His estranged wife, Huma Abedin,
a top aide to Mrs. Clinton, filed for
divorce from Mr. Weiner on Friday in New York, according to two
people with knowledge of the action.
“I engaged in obscene communications with this teenager,” Mr.
Weiner said, his voice high and
shaky, and his body trembling.
Times Square Crash Victim
Ed Murray was a powerful gay leader,
but he faces accusations that he paid
teenagers for sex years ago. PAGE A10
Alyssa Elsman, 18, excelled in a culinary arts program in Michigan and sold
her creations to classmates.
PAGE A21
THIS WEEKEND
Firing Adds to Turmoil at Fox
SPORTSSATURDAY D1-5
Take 2 at the Preakness
Classic Empire’s team is set for a rematch with Always Dreaming. PAGE D1
NEW YORK A20-21, 24
Downfall of Seattle’s Mayor
Those communications “included
sharing explicit images and encouraging her to engage in
sexually explicit conduct,” just as
he had done with adult women, he
said.
Mr. Weiner, 52, will have to register as a sex offender where he
works
and
lives, and he
may face a prison term. He
pleaded guilty
to transferring
obscene
material to a minor, which carries a sentence
Weiner
of up to 10 years
in prison.
Federal prosecutors said in the
plea agreement that a sentence in
the range of 21 to 27 months would
be “fair and appropriate.” Mr. Weiner is to be sentenced on Sept. 8 in
Federal District Court in Manhattan.
Mr. Weiner was led into the
courtroom for the brief hearing
wearing a slim navy suit with a
white shirt and maroon tie; a wedding band could be seen on his left
hand. He sat quietly between his
lawyers, exchanging whispers
with one, Arlo Devlin-Brown, and
an occasional smile.
Continued on Page A24
ARTS C1-7
Can You Be Transracial?
A philosophical schism over an ultrasensitive identity construct.
PAGE C1
Bob Beckel of “The Five” was accused
of a racially insensitive remark. PAGE B1
Uber May Fire Star Engineer
He was ordered to comply with a lawsuit over driverless cars.
PAGE B6
EDITORIAL, OP-ED A22-23
Bret Stephens
PAGE A23
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