Trump Pardons 15, Including Campaign, Blackwater Figures
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P2JW358000-5-A00100-17FFFF5178F ***** WEDNESDAY,DECEMBER 23,2020~VOL. CCLXXVI NO.148 WSJ.com HHHH $4.00 DJIA 30015.51 g 200.94 0.7% NASDAQ 12807.92 À 0.5% STOXX 600 391.25 À 1.2% 10-YR. TREAS. À 7/32 , yield 0.917% OIL $47.02 g $0.95 GOLD $1,866.60 g $12.60 EURO $1.2162 YEN 103.64 Volcano Spews Back to Life on Hawaii’s Big Island Walmart What’s News Sued by U.S. Over Business&Finance Opioid he Trump administration Tsued Walmart, accusing the retail giant of helping to Epidemic fuel the opioid crisis by in- adequately screening for questionable prescriptions Retailer says the DEA despiterepeated warnings is to blame for letting from itsown pharmacists. A1 some doctors Elon Musk said that he had reached out to Tim overprescribe drugs Cook about the possibility of Apple buying Tesla when BY TIMOTHY PUKO the effort to bring out the AND SADIE GURMAN Model 3pushed the electric carmaker near collapse. A1 WASHINGTON—TheTrump Thenation’sdrugstores administration sued Walmart and groceries are rushing Inc. Tuesday, accusing the re- to hire pharmacists and tail giant of helping to fuel the pharmacy technicians to CK nation’sopioid crisis by inade- administer Covid-19 vacci- TO quately screening forques- nations to the masses. A7 tionable prescriptions despite HUTTERS repeated warningsfromits Airlines arepreparing to /S owN pharmacists. call back tens of thousands of TheJusticeDepartment’s workersthey had let go, af- HANDOUT suit claims Walmart sought to terCongressapproved as- GS boost profitsbyunderstaffing sistancetocover payrolls US HOT SPOT: A handout photo made available by the U.S. Geological Survey on Tuesday shows the view of the new eruption itspharmacies and pressuring through the end of March. B1 site in the mouth of the Kilauea volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island. The volcano hadn’t erupted since 2018. employees to fill prescriptions U.S. stocks were mixed, quickly. That made it difficult with the Dowand S&P 500 forpharmaciststoreject in- losing 0.7% and 0.2%, re- valid prescriptions,enabling spectively,while the Nasdaq widespread drug abuse nation- rose 0.5% to arecord. B11 wide, the lawsuit alleges. Trump Pardons 15,Including Walmart responded in a States across the U.S. public filing,saying the law- have received millions of suit “inventsalegal theory unemployment-insurance that unlawfully forces pharma- requests that officials be- ciststocome between patients lievetobetied to fraud. A2 Campaign, BlackwaterFigures and their doctors, and is rid- Foot traffic to physical dled with factual inaccuracies stores fell 39.1% on Super Sat- and cherry-picked documents urdayand wasdowNNearly BY REBECCA BALLHAUS Thelist wasthe firstina paign adviser whose bar side lying to law-enforcement offi- takeN out of context.” 40% forthe weekend from AND BYRON TAU wave of pardons the presi- commentstoanAustralian cials,while Mr.Hunter “Blaming pharmacistsfor ayear earlier,datashow. B1 dent is expected to announce diplomat helped triggerwhat pleaded guilty to one count of notsecond-guessing the very President Trump on Tues- in his final weeks in office. would become Robert Muel- campaign-financeviolations. doctors[the Drug Enforcement Existing-home sales in daygranted 15 pardons and Mr.Trump has discussed ler’s Russiainvestigation. Mr.Stockman wassen- Administration] approved to November fell 2.5% from five commutations to individ- with advisersthe prospect of He also granted clemency tenced to 10 yearsinprison prescribeopioids is atranspar- October, marking the first uals including aformer cam- pardoning several individuals to former NewYork Rep. in 2018 formisuse of charita- ent attempt to shiftblame decline in six months. A3 paignadviserwhose activi- involved in theRussia inves- Chris Collins,former Califor- ble funds.Messrs. Collins and from DEA’s well-documented IAC plans to spin off on- ties set off the Russia tigation as well as members nia Rep.Duncan Hunter and PleaseturntopageA4 failures in keeping bad doctors line-video platform Vimeo investigation, three former of his family and his personal former Texas Rep.Steve from prescribing opioids in the as an independent public congressmen and several for- attorney,Rudy Giuliani. Stockman, all Republicans. President says Covid aid bill PleaseturntopageA2 company next year. B3 mer militarycontractorscon- Among those he pardoned Mr.Collins pleaded guilty isn’t enough................................ A4 victed of wartime killing of on Tuesdaywas George Papa- last year to conspiracyto Biden vowstough response to Sacklers debatedsuit risk to World-Wide Iraqicivilians. dopoulos,his former cam- commit securities fraud and suspected Russian hack...... A4 opioid fortune in 2007.......... A2 Trump granted 15 par- Consumers Wary on Recovery dons and five commutations Amazon’sProblem: It’s a to individuals including afor- A drop in consumer confidence and a decline in home sales mer campaign adviser whose are the latest signs of worries for the economy. A3 activities set off the Russia investigation, three former Giant Acting Like aStartup The ConferenceBoardConsumer ConfidenceIndex(1985=100) congressmen and several former militarycontrac- 140 tors convicted of wartime killing of Iraqi civilians. A1 Jeff Bezoscompetes with the driveofasmall-firm CEOtrying to survive 120 Thepresident criticized the coronavirus relief deal 100 BY DANA MATTIOLI market share from rivals—is ofteN a hall- passed by Congressand mark of a successful business. It’s also why called forlawmakerstoin- Jeff Bezosbuilt Amazon.comInc. from his the tech-and-retail giant is the target of ri- crease direct paymentsto 80 garage with an underdog’s ambition to take vals, regulators and politicians who say its Americans to $2,000. A4 on the establishment. He imbued staff with tactics are unfair for a company its size, and 60 Thefederal government an obsession to grow fast by grabbing cus- potentially illegal. As the company has is advancing toward adeal tomers using the biggest selection and low- grown, so has its capacity to take on an RECESSION with Pfizer to secure100 mil- est prices. Today, he has more than 1.1 mil- ever-growing array of competitors. 40 lion moredoses of the com- lion employees and a market valuation To keep customers happy, which Mr. Be- pany’sCovid-19 vaccine. A7 around $1.6 trillion. zos has long said is Amazon’s fixation and 20 But Amazon never really grew up. Mr. Be- growth strategy, executives behind the Franceand Britain said zos still runs it with the drive of a startup scenes have methodically waged targeted 2010 ’12 ’14 ’16 ’18 ’20 they would reopen their bor- der to trucks from the U.K. af- trying to survive. campaigns against rivals and partners Source:The ConferenceBoard terthe frontier wasclosed due That ethos helps keep Amazon booming. alike—an approach that has changed little PleaseturntopageA10 to avariant of the coronavi- Aggressive competition—including wresting rusthat has hit England. A8 Biden promised a force- Now There’s ful response to the sus- Musk Says He Sought Tesla Sale to Apple pected Russian hack of the federal government and A Line for faulted Trump for not pri- BY TIM HIGGINS the Model 3program, I bring out an electric carofits rizon. Thespecter of adriver- oritizing cybersecurity. A4 Everything reached out to Tim Cook to own, amid anew report the less, electric carmade by tech Thepresident-elect said Tesla Inc.’seffort to bring discuss the possibility of Ap- company is pushing for 2024 giant Apple could provethe he would nominate Con- iii outits Model 3brought the ple acquiring Tesla (for 1/10 of production. kind of fierce competition that electric carcompanynear col- our current value),” Mr.Musk On Twitter, Mr.Musk called traditional automakers, such as necticut education chief lapse in 2018.Now Chief Execu- said in atweet on Tuesday. the report “strange, if true.” General MotorsCo. and Volks- Miguel Cardona to be U.S. Capacitylimitsgive tiveElon Musk has divulged a But the Apple CEO,hesaid, Tesla has built abrand for wagenAG, have yettomuster. education secretary. A5 velvet-rope feel newtwist: He says he contacted “refused to take the meeting.” itself as aSilicon Valley auto PleaseturntopageA2 California Gov.Newsom his Apple Inc.counterpart, Tim Mr. Musk revealed the lat- maker offering high-tech cars named Alex Padilla, the to shoe stores,gyms Cook, to save his company. est detail as he questioned the with promises of fully self-driv- Heard on the Street: Apple state’s secretary of state, “During the darkest days of seriousnessofApple’splans to ing technologyonthe near ho- needs one more thing........ B12 to fill Vice President-elect BY TE-PING CHEN Harris’sU.S.Senateseat. A4 Israel’s parliament was Barbara Ann Rogers, 61, wasshopping forstationery, INSIDE For Hunter Biden, Family dissolved afterthe Netanyahu- aware that otherswerewatch- led unity government failed to passanew budget, sending ing. Name Aided Foreign Deals the countrytoafourth elec- Shehad waited in line for 15 minutes on acold dayto tion in lessthan two years. A9 getintoatinyBrooklyn statio- BY JAMES T. AREDDY rangements with a Romanian nery shop, which had capped AND ANDREW DUEHREN property magnateand overall CONTENTS Personal Journal A11-12 capacity at just one customer allowedhim to maintain a Arts in Review... A13 Property Report... B6 BusinessNews... B3,5 Sports....................... A14 as acoronavirus safety pre- Hunter Biden ramped up globe-trotting lifestyle,ac- Crossword.............. A14 Technology............... B4 caution. Nowshe wasthe business activities with Euro- cording to interviews,docu-