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C M Y K Nxxx,2020-02-21,A,001,Bs-4C,E2 Late Edition Today, plenty of sunshine, another cold day, high 36. Tonight, clear, not as cold as last night, low 29. Tomor- row, plenty of sunshine, milder, high 50. Weather map is on Page B12. VOL. CLXIX ... No. 58,610 © 2020 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2020 $3.00 Trump Adviser Sentenced to 40 Months HOUSE IS WARNED Attacks by President OF RUSSIAN EFFORT Grow in Stone Case TO BOLSTER TRUMP By SHARON LaFRANIERE WASHINGTON — Roger J. President Is Said to Fear Democrats Will Stone Jr., a longtime friend and adviser of President Trump, was ‘Weaponize’ Disclosure in Race sentenced Thursday to more than three years in prison in a political- ly fraught case that put the presi- dent at odds with his attorney This article is by Adam Goldman, had strengthened European secu- general, stirred widespread con- Julian E. Barnes, Maggie Ha- rity. sternation in the Justice Depart- berman and Nicholas Fandos. Some intelligence officials ment and provoked the judge in WASHINGTON — Intelligence viewed the briefing as a tactical the case to denounce pressure on officials warned House lawmak- error, saying the conclusions the justice system. ers last week that Russia was in- could have been delivered in a less In announcing the 40-month terfering in the 2020 campaign to pointed manner or left out entirely sentence, Judge Amy Berman try to get President Trump re- to avoid angering Republicans. Jackson of United States District elected, five people familiar with The intelligence official who deliv- ered the briefing, Shelby Pierson, Court in Washington suggested the matter said, a disclosure to is an aide to Mr. Maguire and has a that attacks on federal judges, Congress that angered Mr. reputation for speaking bluntly. prosecutors and juries should be a Trump, who complained that wake-up call about the threats Democrats would use it against Though intelligence officials have previously told lawmakers now endangering an independent him. that Russia’s interference cam- justice system. While she never The day after the Feb. 13 brief- paign was continuing, last week’s mentioned Mr. Trump by name, ing to lawmakers, the president briefing included what appeared her remarks seemed directed at berated Joseph Maguire, the out- to be new information: that Rus- him. going acting director of national sia intended to interfere with the “The dismay and the disgust at intelligence, for allowing it to take 2020 Democratic primaries as the attempts by others to defend place, people familiar with the ex- well as the general election. his actions as just business as usu- change said. Mr. Trump was par- On Wednesday, the president al in our polarized climate should ticularly irritated that Represent- announced that he was replacing transcend party,” the judge said of ative Adam B. Schiff, Democrat of Mr. Maguire with Richard Grenell, Mr. Stone. “The dismay and dis- California and the leader of the im- the ambassador to Germany and gust at any attempt to interfere peachment proceedings, was at the briefing. an aggressively vocal Trump sup- with the efforts of prosecutors and porter. And though some current members of the judiciary to fulfill During the briefing to the ANNA MONEYMAKER/THE NEW YORK TIMES and former officials speculated their duty should transcend House Intelligence Committee, Roger J. Stone Jr., convicted of lying to protect the president, arriving for his sentencing Thursday. Mr. Trump’s allies challenged the that the briefing might have party.” played a role in that move, two ad- The case was thrown into disar- conclusions, arguing that he had ray last week when Attorney Gen- been tough on Russia and that he Continued on Page A11 eral William P. Barr overruled a sentencing recommendation by four career prosecutors, who then Bloomberg Was Primed. Why Did He Sputter? BLAMING KREMLIN Britain and Australia joined the State Department’s effort to deter Moscow from meddling in the 2020 vote. PAGE A5 quit the case in protest. Mr. Barr any point since he entered the said he decided on his own that the This article is by Matt Flegen- race. While Mr. Bloomberg sought prosecutors’ request for a prison Liabilities Are Exposed, to project a steely calm on Thurs- term of seven to nine years was heimer, Alexander Burns and Jeremy W. Peters. Rattling Campaign day during a swing through Utah, too harsh. But his move coincided he and his team have been left to State Declares with Mr. Trump’s public com- Michael R. Bloomberg had put explain away a comedown that ex- plaints about the prosecutors’ rec- in the hours, his people said — posed some of his gravest liabil- ommendation and elicited wide- holding mock debate sessions checks to Republicans. And Mr. ities. New York City spread criticism that he had bent with top aides and meeting at Bloomberg recognized that he Howard Wolfson, one of Mr. to the president’s will. length to prepare in New York and would have to answer them, or at Bloomberg’s closest advisers, on Bilked Cabbies The attorney general, facing a Palm Springs, Calif. least deflect serviceably enough Thursday shouldered the blame backlash within the department, His campaign had anticipated to survive. for the outcome of the debate. asked Mr. Trump in a nationally the unsurprising questions about But Mr. Bloomberg’s debate “I led the debate prep and I ac- By WINNIE HU televised interview to cease his allegations of a hostile workplace performance on Wednesday cept the responsibility for inade- New York State’s attorney gen- running commentary about the for women at his company, stop- quately preparing him,” Mr. Wolf- proved so lackluster that both eral on Thursday accused New SASCHA STEINBACH/EPA, VIA SHUTTERSTOCK department’s criminal cases. and-frisk policing in his city, the son said. supporters and rivals counted York City of committing fraud by Mourners in Hanau, Germany, Yet less than three hours after unseemliness of a Democratic themselves taken aback, leaving Several people close to the artificially inflating the value of where nine people were killed. Continued on Page A12 contender who has long written his campaign more rattled than at Continued on Page A14 yellow taxi medallions and de- manded $810 million from the city to compensate the thousands of cabdrivers who are now saddled with enormous debt. In German City, Broken Promise of Better Life After Being Abused at Willowbrook The city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission marketed the medal- A Racist Attack lions — city-issued permits re- By BENJAMIN WEISER quired to own a yellow cab — as “a ‘Against Us All’ When the abuse began, solid investment with steady Migdalia could not call for help. growth” and reaped a profit from She was 57 but with the mind of the sale of thousands of them at By JACK EWING a child. She had never spoken and auction at exorbitant prices from and MELISSA EDDY 2004 to 2017, according to an in- could not form words. She lived in HANAU, Germany — Hanau, a a Bronx group home with two doz- vestigation by the attorney gener- al’s office. small city in western Germany, en other adults who also were considered itself a melting pot, an The attorney general, Letitia A. mostly nonverbal and helpless. island of tolerance. That was be- James, said the city had to provide Bruises started appearing on fore a racist extremist opened fire financial relief to the debt-ridden her arms and legs. What looked at a hookah bar Wednesday night, taxi medallion owners within 30 like a shoe print on her belly. killing nine mostly young people A state investigation later con- days or she would sue for fraud, in Germany’s worst attack in re- cluded that she and other resi- unlawful profit and other vio- cent memory. dents had been beaten by some of lations of state law. A working-class community the home’s employees, the people “These taxi medallions were just outside Frankfurt, Hanau was who had been entrusted with her marketed as a pathway to the ethnically diverse long before the care. In Migdalia’s case, the abuse American dream, but instead be- issue of immigration began tear- represented an especially deep came a trapdoor of despair for me- ing apart German politics with the betrayal. dallion owners harmed by the arrival of nearly a million asylum Migdalia and thousands like T.L.C.’s unlawful practices,” Ms. seekers five years ago. her had grown up in the Willow- James said. “The very govern- “We have lived very peacefully ment that was supposed to ensure brook State School, a notorious in- BILL PIERCE/THE LIFE IMAGES COLLECTION, VIA GETTY IMAGES together,” said Metin Kan, a 43- stitution on Staten Island. For dec- fair practices in the marketplace year-old of Turkish descent, who ades, the state used the facility as Horrifying conditions at the Willowbrook State School led to a 1975 deal to protect the victims. engaged in a scheme that de- said he was a friend of one of the a warehouse for children and frauded hundreds of medallion victims, the owner of the Midnight adults with developmental dis- Exposure of these conditions each individual had a “constitu- suffer from mistreatment, a New owners, leaving many with no bar. abilities. They were left unattend- led to a landmark 1975 federal tional right to protection from York Times investigation found. choice but to work day and night The attack Wednesday did ed, naked or in rags. Some were court settlement in which New harm.” Last year alone, there were 97 to pay off their overpriced medal- more than shock Germany.

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