C M Y K Nxxx,2018-05-29,A,001,Bs-4C,E2

Late Edition Today, clouds then some sunshine, noticeably warmer, high 87. Tonight, partly cloudy, low 66. Tomorrow, clouds and sunshine, not as warm, high 75. Weather map, Page B8.

VOL. CLXVII ... No. 57,977 © 2018 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, TUESDAY, MAY 29, 2018 $3.00 Opioid’s Maker Gloves Off, TRUMP EMBRACES Hid Knowledge Women Spar SHADOWY PLOTS, Of Wide Abuse In ’18 Races ERODING TRUST

Saw Early Evidence of By SUSAN CHIRA Trouble, Report Says and MATT FLEGENHEIMER The question went out late one THEORIES FROM FRINGES night on a private message chain By BARRY MEIER of insurgent female candidates for Congress: Do you really attack a Agencies Undermined by Purdue Pharma, the company fellow Democrat? that planted the seeds of the opi- “I feel like I’ve been pulling Claims of ‘Spygate’ oid epidemic through its ag- punches,” wrote Alexandria Oca- and ‘Deep State’ gressive marketing of OxyContin, sio-Cortez, who is challenging a has long claimed it was unaware longtime Democratic incumbent, of the powerful opioid painkiller’s Joe Crowley of New York, in a pri- growing abuse until years after it By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS mary. “Do you ever get any push- went on the market. and MAGGIE HABERMAN back from voters, or those who But a copy of a confidential Jus- don’t want ‘party infighting?’” WASHINGTON — As a candi- tice Department report shows Within the hour, peers from date, Donald J. Trump claimed that federal prosecutors investi- that the United States govern- gating the company found that Texas, Washington State and North Carolina had weighed in: ment had known in advance Purdue Pharma knew about “sig- about the Sept. 11 attacks. He nificant” abuse of OxyContin in Keep up the fight. “We’re not trying to ask permis- hinted that An- the first years after the drug’s in- tonin Scalia, a troduction in 1996 and concealed sion to get in the door,” Ms. Ocasio- NEWS Cortez, a 28-year-old organizer on ANALYSIS Supreme Court that information. justice who died in Company officials had received Bernie Sanders’ presidential cam- paign, said in an interview. his sleep two years reports that the pills were being ago, had been murdered. And for crushed and snorted; stolen from As Democratic women run for House, Senate and state offices in years, Mr. Trump pushed the pharmacies; and that some doc- notion that President Barack tors were being charged with sell- historic numbers this year, many are bucking the careful and cau- Obama had been born in Kenya ing prescriptions, according to rather than Honolulu, making dozens of previously undisclosed tious ways of politics. As Stacey Abrams showed last week, a black him ineligible for the presidency. documents that offer a detailed None of that was true. look inside Purdue Pharma. But woman can win the Democratic nomination for governor in Geor- Last week, President Trump the drugmaker continued “in the promoted new, unconfirmed face of this knowledge” to market gia by running a proudly liberal campaign, for instance. For doz- accusations to suit his political OxyContin as less prone to abuse narrative: that a “criminal deep ens of these candidates, con- and addiction than other prescrip- state” element within Mr. Oba- fronting President Trump and tion opioids, prosecutors wrote in ma’s government planted a spy winning seats and offices for 2006. deep inside his presidential Democrats are not the only goals: Based on their findings after a campaign to help his rival, Hilla- They want to run and win on their four-year investigation, the pros- ry Clinton, win — a scheme he own terms. Some are coming for ecutors recommended that three branded “Spygate.” It was the their own party. And many are not top Purdue Pharma executives be latest indication that a president waiting their turn, as past genera- indicted on felony charges, includ- who has for decades trafficked in tions were mostly content to do. ing conspiracy to defraud the conspiracy theories has brought Like Ms. Abrams, many of these United States, that could have them from the fringes of public challengers are women who lean sent the men to prison if con- discourse to the Oval Office. left, and many are women of color, victed. Now that he is president, Mr. raising pointed questions for a But top Justice Department of- Trump’s baseless stories of se- Democratic Party wrestling with ficials in the George W. Bush ad- cret plots by powerful interests ministration did not support the its relationship to identity politics. appear to be having a distinct move, said four lawyers who took Some are mounting primary chal- effect. Among critics, they have Continued on Page A18 Continued on Page A16 fanned fears that he is eroding public trust in institutions, un- dermining the idea of objective truth and sowing widespread suspicions about the government Seeking to Divine What Drove and news media that mirror his own. “The effect on the life of the A Defender to Set Himself Afire nation of a president inventing conspiracy theories in order to distract attention from legitimate By ANNIE CORREAL investigations or other things he Sometime before dawn on gathered — just a stretch of dislikes is corrosive,” said Jon April 14, David Buckel left his patchy lawn on the shoulder of the Meacham, a presidential histori- small brick house on the edge of road. an and biographer. “The diabol- Prospect Park in Brooklyn, It’s not clear how long Mr. ical brilliance of the Trump strat- pulling a shopping cart. He passed Buckel stood there, or when he egy of disinformation is that the magnolia tree in the garden, doused himself with gas, but at many people are simply going to the stone sculptures he had made. 5:55 a.m., as the light began to hear the charges and counter- charges, and decide that there Then instead of walking to work, gather before sunrise, he sent an must be something to them as he usually did on Saturdays, he email to the news media explain- went into the park. because the president of the ing what he was about to do. The United States is saying them.” He turned onto the road that first 911 call came at 6:08 a.m.: loops around the meadows and The effects were evident in man on fire. PHOTOGRAPHS BY GARETH SMIT FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES ball fields, and after less than a Washington on Thursday, when When responders arrived, the quarter of a mile, he veered onto Stars and Stripes and Trombones the Justice Department held a the grass. The place he chose flames were going out. Mr. Buckel, pair of unusual briefings with would surprise people later, when a prominent civil rights lawyer The Staten Island Memorial Day parade, which began in 1918 during World War I, set off Monday lawmakers to share sensitive they came with flowers: It wasn’t turned environmental advocate, on Forest Avenue with a contingent of R.O.T.C. cadets from the Air Force, top, and Navy midship- information about the special a plaza or a spot where crowds Continued on Page A20 men, middle, and of course a marching band, above, from Port Richmond High School. Continued on Page A14

Migrant ‘Spider-Man’ Rescues 4-Year-Old and Wins Paris’s Heart Italian President Sinks Coalition shared widely on social media. To Extinguish Anti-Euro Flames By AURELIEN BREEDEN Finally, after scaling four bal- and ALAN COWELL conies, the man reached the child and pulled him to safety. And sud- PARIS — The 4-year-old boy By JASON HOROWITZ denly, an act of individual courage seemed to be suspended from a and resourcefulness began to play ROME — He’s been called the usually revered figure of the balcony. An adult standing on a into Europe’s fraught and polar- “gray,” “invisible” and “gentle to Italian head of state the country’s nearby balcony seemed power- the point of seeming fragile.” Sil- public enemy No. 1. They called less to help. Disaster seemed the ized debate about outsiders, im- vio Berlusconi, the former prime for his impeachment, saying he only possible outcome. migrants and refugees. minister, once compared him to “a had overstepped his constitu- Then, to the nimble rescue on The man, identified as monk.” tional bounds with delusions of the streets of Paris on Saturday Mamoudou Gassama, 22, is a mi- But on Monday, Italy’s quiet, grandeur, blocked the will of the evening, came a young man grant from , a troubled former white-haired president, Sergio people and destroyed Italian de- whom some French people have French colony in northwest Af- Mattarella, emerged as the most mocracy. started to call the Spider-Man of rica, who journeyed through , and contentious figure in Italian and In response, Mr. Mattarella pri- the 18th, referring to the arron- European politics. His refusal to dissement of Paris where the before making the dangerous vately plugged along. Mediterranean Sea crossing to It- confirm a euroskeptic economist On Monday morning, as mar- episode unfolded. as a government minister set off aly and arriving in in Sep- kets rose and fell with the whip- With a combination of grit, agil- the collapse of a populist coalition tember, without documentation. lashing events in Italy, Mr. ity and muscle, the man hauled hours before it was expected to himself hand over hand from one On Monday, after his heroic res- take control of the European Un- Mattarella gave a new mandate to balcony to another, springing cue of the boy, he met with Presi- ion’s fourth largest economy. form a government to Carlo from one parapet to grasp the next dent Emmanuel Macron. Now, he Mr. Mattarella’s defenders Cottarelli, a respected economist, one up. A crowd that had gathered will get the requisite documenta- hailed him as the courageous pro- former International Monetary before he began his daring exploit tion to live legally in France. tector of Italy’s democracy, insti- Fund official and Italian govern- urged him ever upward, accord- “I told him that in recognition of TAREK DANDACH, VIA REUTERS tutions and financial health, while ment appointee, who told report- ing to onlookers’ video that was Continued on Page A7 Mamoudou Gassama’s daring rescue on Saturday in Paris. fuming populists sought to make Continued on Page A6

NATIONAL A11-18 BUSINESS DAY B1-5 ARTS C1-6 Moral Objection to Trumpism Skepticism for Starbucks Sinking Inside the Box Liberal evangelicals held a revival near Starbucks is under fire over its bias At Sotheby’s, the rapper ASAP Rocky Liberty University to protest Jerry Fal- training. It’s not perfect, but it’s a start, put himself in a glass booth and, among well Jr.’s ties to the president. PAGE A11 Andrew Ross Sorkin writes. PAGE B1 other things, dunked his head in ice water. Why? Well, it was a metaphor for NEW YORK A19-21 Diamonds Made Whenever something or another. PAGE C1 INTERNATIONAL A4-10 Parking on the Beach De Beers is getting into the lab-created SCIENCE TIMES D1-8 It’s ‘Arrested Development’ Signs of Life in Mosul Officials in Wildwood, N.J., put a park- diamond business with a new line of A Life Saved Before Birth ing lot for cars (four-wheel-drive only) affordable fashion jewelry. PAGE B1 Revived again, the series eventually Nine months after the Islamic State Doctors in San Francisco treated a fetus directly on the sand. PAGE A19 re-approaches the manic pleasures of was driven from Mosul, the Iraqi city is the show’s heyday, James Poniewozik with an often fatal blood disorder. The showing verve and energy. PAGE A8 says. But it takes time getting there, child survived, but the long-term prog- SPORTSTUESDAY B6-12 and doesn’t stay long. PAGE C1 nosis is still uncertain. PAGE D1 Disarming North Korea Now It’s Warriors vs. Cavaliers It could take up to 15 years, an expert Trailing at halftime, Golden State re- EDITORIAL, OP-ED A22-23 said, to be sure the rogue state no long- bounded to beat the Rockets and win er has nuclear weapons. PAGE A10 the Western Conference finals. PAGE B6 Paul Krugman PAGE A22 U(D54G1D)y+?!$!$!#!{