C M Y K Nxxx,2018-03-26,A,001,Bs-4C,E2 Late Edition Today, sunshine and patchy clouds, rather cool for late March, high 48. Tonight, clear, cold, low 32. Tomor- row, plenty of sunshine, high 50. Weather map appears on Page D8. VOL. CLXVII ... No. 57,913 © 2018 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, MONDAY, MARCH 26, 2018 $3.00 Marketing Ties to Trump, Top Donor Made Millions Offers of Private Parties With the President, Sent With Proposed Business Deals By KENNETH P. VOGEL and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK WASHINGTON — For Elliott tarian facing corruption charges, Broidy, Donald J. Trump’s presi- who posted a photograph with the dential campaign represented an president on Facebook. unparalleled political and busi- This type of access has value on ness opportunity. the international stage, where the An investor and defense con- perception of support from an tractor, Mr. Broidy became a top American president — or even a fund-raiser for Mr. Trump’s cam- photo with one — can benefit for- paign when most elite Republican eign leaders back home. donors were keeping their dis- Mr. Broidy was open about his tance, and Mr. Trump in turn over- business interests, but the admin- looked the lingering whiff of scan- istration made no effort to curtail dal from Mr. Broidy’s 2009 guilty his offers of access to clients or plea in a pension fund bribery prospective clients. case. Yet Mr. Broidy was so ag- After Mr. Trump’s election, Mr. gressive, some associates said, Broidy quickly capitalized, mar- that they warned him to tone keting his Trump connections to down his approach for fear that he politicians and governments might run afoul of the president, around the world, including some clients or American lobbying and with unsavory records, according to interviews and documents ob- anti-corruption laws. tained by The New York Times. As with so many other political Mr. Broidy suggested to clients conventions, Mr. Trump has up- JOHN MOORE/GETTY IMAGES and prospective customers of his ended the traditional system of ac- Covering the Story of Immigration, From All Sides Virginia-based defense contract- cess to the president, among the ing company, Circinus, that he most prized chits in Washington. A photographer has spent years capturing various scenes such as a Border Patrol agent in Texas chasing a man in 2014. Page A6. could broker meetings with Mr. Continued on Page A15 Trump, his administration and congressional allies. Mr. Broidy’s ability to leverage his political connections to boost Defecting From North Korea, Adult Film Star Feared for Safety his business illuminates how Mr. Trump’s unorthodox approach to Vowing: ‘We Are Ready to Die’ Of Daughter After Trump Threat governing has spawned a new breed of access peddling in the swamp he vowed to drain. By JANE PERLEZ and SU-HYUN LEE By JIM RUTENBERG Mr. Broidy offered tickets to V.I.P. inauguration events, includ- BEIJING — Ms. Choi was wor- Ms. Choi longed to be reunited The pornographic film star chael Cohen, threatened to sue. ing a candlelight dinner attended ried about her sister in North Ko- with the sister, a 50-year-old Stephanie Clifford told “60 Min- “I was in a parking lot going to a by Mr. Trump, to a Congolese rea. dressmaker with her own home utes” that she struck a $130,000 fitness class with my infant strongman accused of funding a The last time they spoke, two business, and also the nephew she deal for her silence about an al- daughter,” she told the “60 Min- lavish lifestyle with public re- months earlier, her sister had had left behind. She wanted to get leged affair with Donald J. Trump utes” correspondent and CNN sources. He helped arrange a sounded desperate. She said she them to safety, out of the reach of in the final days of the 2016 cam- host Anderson Cooper. “And a guy meeting with Republican senators had been imprisoned and beaten, the government that had arrested paign because she was worried walked up on me and said to me, and offered a trip to Mar-a-Lago, and could no longer bear the tor- her husband, her brother-in-law about her safety and that of her ‘Leave Trump alone. Forget the the president’s private Florida re- ment. She said she wanted to flee and her son-in-law on suspicions young daughter. story.’ And he leaned round and sort, for an Angolan politician. and join Ms. Choi in South Korea. ALEX J. BERLINER/ABIMAGES, VIA A.P. of helping people leave. They had That concern, she told “60 Min- looked at my daughter and said, And he arranged an invitation to a She said she would carry poi- been targeted as enemies of the utes” in an interview broadcast on ‘That’s a beautiful little girl, it The fund-raiser Elliott Broidy son, to kill herself if she were cap- party at Mr. Trump’s Washington state and were never seen again. would be a shame if something tured. Sunday night, was based on a hotel for a Romanian parliamen- with his wife, Robin, in 2012. One evening this past summer, happened to her mom.” For Ms. Choi, 63, a grandmother threat she received in 2011 from a Ms. Choi got the news she had Ms. Clifford said she did not go with large brown eyes and a steely man who approached her in Las been waiting for. fortitude, getting the rest of her Vegas. She said the threat came to the police after the threat, but family to South Korea was the As she opened her apartment after she sold her story about Mr. when, years later, a lawyer came most important thing left in life. door, her niece, 25, shouted: “My Trump for $15,000 to Bauer Pub- to her with an offer brokered by Defense Team Labor Revolts She had fled North Korea 10 years brother called. He said: ‘We lishing, which finally published Mr. Cohen in the final days of the ago. Her son had made it out too, crossed the border. We’re in the interview in its magazine In- presidential campaign, she took it For President: Signal Threats as had her sister’s daughter, now a China. Get the car.’” Touch early this year. Bauer had because, “I was concerned for my hairdresser living near her in Ms. Choi, who must go by only initially decided not to run it after family and their safety.” Seoul, the South’s flashy capital. Continued on Page A8 Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, Mi- Continued on Page A14 Army of One Beyond Money By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT By NOAM SCHEIBER and MAGGIE HABERMAN When 20,000 West Virginia Passion of Gun Protests Testing G.O.P.’s Hold on Swing Suburbs As President Trump heads into teachers staged a rare statewide one of the most critical phases of walkout, questions of pay and the special counsel’s investiga- benefits dominated the headlines. By ALEXANDER BURNS tion, his personal legal team has But those concerns could not fully and JONATHAN MARTIN shrunk to essentially just one account for the teachers’ fero- member, and he is struggling to The passionate gun control ral- cious resolve. After all, stagnant find any top lawyers willing to lies Saturday that brought out wages and receding benefits have represent him. large crowds around the country been an issue for workers for dec- sent a vivid signal that the issue is Working for a president is usu- ades. likely to play a major role in the ally seen as a dream job. But lead- The missing variable appears to 2018 midterm elections, and that ing white-collar lawyers in Wash- have been anxiety about their sta- Republicans could find them- ington and New York have repeat- tus as professionals. selves largely on the defensive on edly spurned overtures to take Fred Albert, a math teacher and gun issues for the first time in dec- over the defense of Mr. Trump, a local union official in the Charles- ades. mercurial client who often ignores ton area, said many felt that the The gun debate could play out his advisers’ guidance. In some Legislature had devalued their very differently in House and Sen- cases, lawyers’ firms have training and certification by ate races, as Republicans strain to blocked any talks, fearing a back- proposing to let people teach a save suburban congressional dis- lash that would hurt business. subject they hadn’t studied and tricts where gun control is popu- The president lost two lawyers had no experience in. lar, and Democrats defend Senate in just the past four days, includ- “If someone really wants to be a seats in red states where the Sec- ing one who had been on board for teacher, if they feel the call to be in ond Amendment is sacrosanct. less than a week. the classroom with students, they But, in a year of extraordinary Joseph diGenova, a longtime need to go through the same pro- political intensity, and in the first Washington lawyer who has grams we went through,” he said. national election of the Trump pushed theories on Fox News that In that sense, Mr. Albert and his presidency, Republican and Dem- the F.B.I. made up evidence colleagues were in the main- ocratic leaders say the gun issue against Mr. Trump, left the team stream of recent labor history. appears to have become a potent on Sunday. He had been hired last From doctors and nurses to gov- rallying point for voters opposed HOLLY PICKETT FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES Monday, three days before the ernment workers and journalists, to Mr.