Transcript
Page 1: To Aid Trump, U.S. Says Russian Hackers ActedMethodist Episcopal Church, Dyl-ann S. Roof sat at an oval confer-ence table with two F.B.I. agents and confessed — calmly, clinically,

THIS WEEKEND

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CHARLESTON, S.C. — Shortlyafter being arrested and about 17hours after he shot up the fellow-ship hall at Emanuel AfricanMethodist Episcopal Church, Dyl-ann S. Roof sat at an oval confer-ence table with two F.B.I. agentsand confessed — calmly, clinically,occasionally chortling — to killing

nine people who he acknowledgedcould not have been more inno-cent.

In a recording of the interviewplayed on Friday during Mr.Roof’s death penalty trial here inFederal District Court, he ex-pressed surprise when the agentstold him how many had beenkilled. “I wouldn’t believe you,” hesaid after one first suggested thatnine people had died. “There was-n’t even nine people there. Are you

guys lying to me?”Mr. Roof, 21 at the time, told the

agents he was astonished to findthe church parking lot not swarm-ing with police when he exited aside door at 9:06 p.m. on June 17,2015. He said he had saved one ofeight magazines for his Glocksemiautomatic handgun, loadedwith hollow-point bullets boughtat Walmart, so he could kill him-self if confronted by the police.

Given that many mass killers do

take their own lives, or are shotdead by the police, Mr. Roof’s ex-tensive interview offered a rarecourtroom glimpse deep into themind of someone accused of sucha rampage.

Mr. Roof answered the agents’questions eagerly in a matter-of-fact tone, his voice deeper thanmight be expected from his boyishappearance. He did not so muchexpress remorse as depict his ac-

‘I Had to Do It,’ Defendant in Church Rampage Says in a Video

By KEVIN SACKand ALAN BLINDER

Continued on Page A18

YOUSSEF KARWASHAN/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES

Desperate to reach safety, Syrians flooded an Aleppo checkpoint as government forces advanced, retaking most of the city. Page A8.Fleeing as Syria Clamps Down on Aleppo

When Wells Fargo admitted afew months ago that thousands ofits employees had created asmany as two million unauthorizedaccounts for its customers, alarmbells went off at Prudential, one ofthe nation’s biggest insurancefirms.

Wells Fargo has a partnershipwith Prudential to sell a low-costlife insurance policy to the bank’sretail customers. After news of theWells Fargo settlement in Sep-tember, Prudential ordered an in-ternal review of its dealings withthe bank, to make sure nothingwas amiss with the joint endeavor.

A lot was amiss. According to

three former managers in Pru-dential’s corporate investigationdivision, Wells Fargo employeesappeared to have signed up bankcustomers for Prudential insur-ance without the customers’knowledge or permission. In somecases, they even arranged formonthly premium fees to be with-drawn from their customers’ ac-counts.

When investigators reviewedtapes of calls to Prudential’s

customer service line, they foundcomplaints from Wells Fargocustomers about policies they didnot remember buying. Many ofthe customers did not speak Eng-lish and needed a Spanish inter-preter, the three plaintiffs said.

“This definitely was the samekind of conduct that Wells wascommitting, but through Pruden-tial,” said one of the three whistle-blowers, Julie Han Broderick, alawyer and former co-head of Pru-dential’s corporate investigationsdivision, which has about 30 em-ployees.

Ms. Broderick and two of hercolleagues, Darron Smith andThomas Schreck, filed a wrongfultermination suit against Pruden-tial on Tuesday. They say they

Suit Says Wells Fargo Also Sold Sham InsuranceBy STACY COWLEY

and MATTHEW GOLDSTEIN

From left, Thomas Schreck, Julie Han Broderick and Darron Smith are suing Prudential, sayingthey were fired for calling attention to unauthorized insurance policies issued by Wells Fargo.

BRYAN ANSELM FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Whistle-Blowers RaiseConcern About Deal

With Prudential

Continued on Page B5

SEOUL, South Korea — For hernearly four years in office, Presi-dent Park Geun-hye of South Ko-rea cooperated closely with theUnited States, particularly whenit came to dealing with her volatileneighbor, North Korea.

A vote on Friday to impeach hernow throws both her country andAmerican policy in the region intodeep uncertainty, as the North’snuclear program advances andthe incoming administration ofDonald J. Trump deliberates overwhether to adjust Washington’sstance on how to best containNorth Korean aggression.

Ms. Park, a conservative, hadadopted a tough approach towardthe North, focusing on strongersanctions. Her administration hadalso agreed to deploy an Ameri-can advanced missile defense sys-tem that infuriated the Chinese.

Yet her deep unpopularity —the result of a scandal over influ-ence-peddling that led membersof her own party to want to ousther — increases the odds that thenext election will be won by an ad-vocate of friendlier relations withChina.

Ms. Park’s powers are sus-pended while the ConstitutionalCourt considers whether to re-move her permanently. If it votesto do so, South Korea will hold anelection for a new president in 60days. Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn will serve as acting president.

KOREA VOTE PUTSNATION IN LIMBO

A Measure to Impeach aLeader Passes Easily

By CHOE SANG-HUN

Continued on Page A10

LONDON — Internationalsports’ antidoping watchdog onFriday laid out mountainous evi-dence that for years Russian offi-cials orchestrated a doping pro-gram at the Olympics and othercompetitions that involved or ben-efited 1,000 athletes in 30 sports.The findings intensified pressureon the International OlympicCommittee to reassess Russia’smedals from the 2014 WinterOlympics in Sochi and penalizethe nation ahead of the 2018 Win-ter Games.

The evidence, published by theWorld Anti-Doping Agency, wasthe coda to a set of investigationsled by the Canadian lawyer Rich-ard H. McLaren, who issued adamning report in July thatprompted more than 100 Russianathletes to be barred from the 2016Summer Olympics in Rio de Janei-ro.

The follow-up report outlinedcompetitions that had beentainted by years of extraordinarypreparations, ensuring Russia’sdominance at the 2012 SummerOlympics in London, the 2013track and field world champi-onships in Moscow and the 2014Winter Olympics in Sochi — the“apex” of Russia’s cheating, the

Doping ReportExpands ScaleOf Russian Plot

By REBECCA R. RUIZ

Continued on Page D2

President-elect Donald J.Trump is entering office with fi-nancial entanglements that areexotic and far-flung: a condomini-um project in Manila, a luxury fur-niture maker in Istanbul, golfcourses in Scotland and Ireland,and a hotel in Azerbaijan.

But starting next month, Mr.Trump’s most visible business in-terest will be beamed directly intomillions of American livingrooms: “The Celebrity Appren-tice” is back, and the president-elect is coming with it.

Just weeks before InaugurationDay, Mr. Trump will resume hisrole as an executive producer ofthe NBC reality show, an unlikelyside project for a commander inchief, and one that is poised tobring him hundreds of thousandsof dollars in income.

Modern presidents, includingthe current one, have receivedroyalties from sales of memoirsand book projects. But Mr.Trump’s ties to the show — nowstarring Arnold Schwarzenegger,and renamed “The New CelebrityApprentice” — potentially thrustthe president-elect into a host ofpotential conflicts, from cozinesswith the brands that advertise onthe show to his relationship with

Clashing Roles:A CommanderAnd a Producer

By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM

Continued on Page A12

John H. Glenn Jr., given a rare dualhonor, rode along the Canyon of Heroesin 1962, above, and in 1998. PAGE A20

NEW YORK A19-21

One Parade Wasn’t Enough

The city’s charter schools have a lowerpercentage of homeless students thantraditional public schools. PAGE A19

Homeless Pupils Face Disparity

A far-right Dutch politician was con-victed of inciting discrimination forremarks about Moroccans, but judgesimposed no punishment. PAGE A4

INTERNATIONAL A3-10

Crime and No Punishment

Questions about coverage of a murderunderscored a rift over Angela Merkel’spolicy on newcomers. PAGE A3

National Debate in Germany

A compromise in the Senate cleared theway for a vote on a measure to fund thegovernment through April. PAGE A11

NATIONAL A11-18

Still Open for Business

At Nobel time in Stockholm, there’s nosign the literature laureate, Bob Dylan,will grace the proceedings. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-8

A Snub for Sweden?

The Third Reich ran on methamphet-amines and other drugs, a new book byNorman Ohler reports. PAGE C1

Book Says Nazis Took Drugs

Why avoid car rental companies alto-gether? Let us count the reasons. RonLieber compiles a list of annoyancesand inconveniences that send himinstead to Lyft and Uber. PAGE B1

BUSINESS DAY B1-6

Saying No to Rental Cars

Timothy Egan PAGE A23

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A22-23

As the Transportation Department eyesa policy shift on cell calls over in-flightWi-Fi, it is proposing to alert travelersthat they may be “unwillingly exposed”to phone conversations. PAGE B1

A Debate Over In-Flight Calls

President Vladimir V. Putinand President Obama in 2014.

GREG BAKER/A.F.P. — GETTY IMAGES

Late Edition

VOL. CLXVI . . . No. 57,442 © 2016 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2016

Russian Hackers ActedTo Aid Trump, U.S. Says

WASHINGTON — Americanintelligence agencies have con-cluded with “high confidence”that Russia acted covertly in thelatter stages of the presidentialcampaign to harm Hillary Clin-ton’s chances and promote DonaldJ. Trump, according to senior ad-ministration officials.

They based that conclusion, inpart, on another finding — whichthey say was also reached withhigh confidence — that the Rus-sians hacked the Republican Na-tional Committee’s computer sys-tems in addition to their attacks onDemocratic organizations, but didnot release whatever informationthey gleaned from the Republicannetworks.

In the months before the elec-tion, it was largely documentsfrom Democratic Party systemsthat were leaked to the public. In-telligence agencies have con-cluded that the Russians gave theDemocrats’ documents toWikiLeaks.

Republicans have a differentexplanation for why no docu-ments from their networks wereever released. Over the past sev-eral months, officials from the Re-publican committee have consis-tently said that their networkswere not compromised, assertingthat only the accounts of individ-ual Republicans were attacked.On Friday, a senior committee offi-cial said he had no comment.

Mr. Trump’s transition office is-sued a statement Friday eveningreflecting the deep divisions thatemerged between his campaignand the intelligence agencies overRussian meddling in the election.“These are the same people thatsaid Saddam Hussein had weap-ons of mass destruction,” thestatement said. “The electionended a long time ago in one of thebiggest Electoral College vic-tories in history. It’s now time tomove on and ‘Make AmericaGreat Again.’”

One senior government official,who had been briefed on an F.B.I.investigation into the matter, said

that while there were attempts topenetrate the Republican commit-tee’s systems, they were not suc-cessful.

But the intelligence agencies’conclusions that the hacking ef-forts were successful, which havebeen presented to PresidentObama and other senior officials,add a complex wrinkle to thequestion of what the Kremlin’sevolving objectives were in inter-vening in the American presiden-tial election.

“We now have high confidence

that they hacked the D.N.C. andthe R.N.C., and conspicuously re-leased no documents” from theRepublican organization, one sen-ior administration official said, re-ferring to the Russians.

It is unclear how many fileswere stolen from the Republicancommittee; in some cases, investi-gators never get a clear picture. Itis also far from clear that Russia’soriginal intent was to support Mr.Trump, and many intelligence of-ficials — and former officials inMrs. Clinton’s campaign — be-lieve that the primary motive ofthe Russians was to simply dis-rupt the campaign and undercutconfidence in the integrity of thevote.

The Russians were as surprisedas everyone else at Mr. Trump’svictory, intelligence officials said.Had Mrs. Clinton won, they be-lieve, emails stolen from the Dem-ocratic committee and from sen-

By DAVID E. SANGER and SCOTT SHANE

Agencies Say Both Parties Were Targets —G.O.P. Data Was Never Released

Continued on Page A17

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