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VOL. CLXVI .... No. 57,576 © 2017 The New York Times Company SUNDAY, APRIL 23, 2017 WASHINGTON — The day be- fore he upended the 2016 election, James B. Comey, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investiga- tion, summoned agents and lawyers to his conference room. They had been debating all day, and it was time for a decision. Mr. Comey’s plan was to tell Congress that the F.B.I. had re- ceived new evidence and was re- opening its investigation into Hil- lary Clinton, the presidential front-runner. The move would vi- olate the policies of an agency that does not reveal its investigations or do anything that may influence an election. But Mr. Comey had declared the case closed, and he believed he was obligated to tell Congress that had changed. “Should you consider what you’re about to do may help elect Donald Trump president?” an ad- viser asked him, Mr. Comey re- called recently at a closed meeting with F.B.I. agents. He could not let politics affect his decision, he replied. “If we ever start considering who might be affected, and in what way, by what we do, we’re done,” he told the agents. But with polls showing Mrs. Clinton holding a comfortable lead, Mr. Comey ended up plung- ing the F.B.I. into the molten cen- ter of a bitter election. Fearing the backlash that would come if it were revealed after the election that the F.B.I. had been investigat- ing the next president and had kept it a secret, Mr. Comey sent a letter informing Congress that the case was reopened. What he did not say was that the F.B.I. was also investigating the campaign of Donald J. Trump. Just weeks before, Mr. Comey had declined to answer a question from Congress about whether there was such an investigation. Only in March, long after the elec- tion, did Mr. Comey confirm that there was one. For Mr. Comey, keeping the In Trying to Avoid Politics, Comey Shaped an Election Behind-the-Scenes Handling of 2 Inquiries Thrust F.B.I. Into Center of Race This article is by Matt Apuzzo, Mi- chael S. Schmidt, Adam Goldman and Eric Lichtblau. James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director, testifying in July. AL DRAGO/THE NEW YORK TIMES Continued on Page 20 WASHINGTON — Relation- ships have always been President Trump’s currency and comfort, helping him talk his way into real estate deals over three decades in New York. Those who know him best say that his outer confidence has always belied an inner uncer- tainty, and that he needs to test ideas with a wide range of people. As Mr. Trump’s White House advisers jostle for position, the president has turned to another group of advisers — from family, real estate, media, finance and politics, and all outside the White House gates — many of whom he consults at least once a week. The media mogul Rupert Mur- doch is on the phone every week, encouraging Mr. Trump when he’s low and arguing that he focus on the economy rather than detour- ing to other issues. The developer Richard LeFrak is a soothing voice who listens to Mr. Trump’s complaints that cost estimates for the border wall with Mexico are too high. Sean Hannity tells the president that keeping promises on core Republican issues is cru- cial. Mr. Trump’s West Wing aides, like President Bill Clinton’s staff two decades before, say they sometimes cringe at the input from people they can’t control, with consequences they can’t pre- dict. Knowing these advisers — who are mostly white, male and older — is a key to figuring out the words coming from Mr. Trump’s mouth and his Twitter feed. Here, based on interviews with more than a dozen friends, top aides and advisers inside and out- side the White House, are 20 of Mr. Trump Reaches Beyond West Wing for Counsel The Outer Circle Rupert Murdoch THE MOGUL Roger J. Stone Jr. THE MYSTERY MAN THE MEDIA Sean Hannity Richard LeFrak THE FRIEND THE LAWYER Sheri A. Dillon Melania Trump THE FIRST LADY THE LOYALISTS Corey Lewandowski Newt Gingrich Chris Christie THE GOVERNOR THE SPEAKER Paul D. Ryan Chris Ruddy THE CLUBGOERS Ike Perlmutter Robert Kraft Eric Trump THE SONS Donald Trump Jr. Thomas Barrack Jr. Steven Schwarzman THE PEERS Steve Roth Phil Ruffin Carl Icahn In addition to his White House advisers, President Trump frequently consults family, friends and acquaintances. Looks to Touchstones In Family and Finance For Advice Each Week By MAGGIE HABERMAN and GLENN THRUSH Continued on Page 17 PARIS — For at least the last three French elections, voters in the town of Louviers, about 60 miles northwest of Paris, have cast their ballots for the candidate who ultimately won the presiden- cy. So who are they going to vote for on Sunday, in the country’s closest race in memory? “I haven’t decided. It’s gnawing at me,” said Charlène Hedoux, 30, a cleaning woman who was sitting at a bus stop this past week in cen- tral Louviers, which has a soaring Gothic church and bustling cafes. “I have children. I didn’t before. When one sees how these last few days have been going, it’s not very reassuring.” And that was before the terror- ist attack on Thursday that left a police officer dead in central Paris and added yet another com- bustible element to an already vol- atile race. The election on Sunday is one of the most consequential in recent times — not just for France, but for Europe — and one of the most unpredictable, too. Even at this late stage, a re- markable 28 percent or so of voters remained undecided. The four leading candidates span the extremes of the political spectrum and are locked in a virtual dead Only Sure Bet In French Vote Is Uncertainty By ALISSA J. RUBIN Continued on Page 15 GROZNY, Russia — It was sup- posed to be a night out. But for the young man who calls himself Maksim, as for scores of other gay men arrested in a pogrom this month in Russia’s Chechnya re- gion, it pivoted into nearly two weeks of beatings and torture. Maksim said it had started with a chat room conversation with “a very good old friend who is also gay,” and who suggested that they meet at an apartment. When Mak- sim arrived, however, he was greeted not by his friend but by agents who beat him. Later, they strapped him to a chair, attached electrical wires to his hands with alligator clips and began an inter- rogation. “They yelled, ‘Who else do you know?’ ” Maksim said, and zapped him with current from time to time. “It was unbearably painful; I was hanging on with my last strength,” he added. “But I didn’t tell them anything.” Gay men have never had an easy life in Chechnya. But the tar- geted, collective punishment of gays that began last month under its pro-Kremlin leader, Ramzan A. Kadyrov, is a new turn in the re- gion’s long history of rights abuses. Novaya Gazeta, an opposition newspaper, first reported the po- grom, saying that at least 100 gay men had been arrested and three killed in the roundup. Human Rights Watch corroborated those findings. The sweep has been widely con- Gay Men Lured Into Torture in Chechen Pogrom By ANDREW E. KRAMER K.G.B. Tactics Used to Target and Abuse Continued on Page 4 Ilya and Nohcho, gay men from Chechnya, were both arrested and tortured. “They starve you. They shock you,” Nohcho said. JAMES HILL FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES The sun was setting in New York as James Murdoch, looking confident in cream pants and a dark blazer, stepped before 350 guests in a glass-walled concert hall and waxed poetic about his pet TV channel and its dedication to “scientific literacy.” The event on Wednesday night was an advertising showcase for National Geographic, which Mr. Murdoch, 44, has doted on since becoming chief executive of its parent company, 21st Century Fox. As a person who cares deeply about “issues related to the envi- ronment, conservation, explora- tion and education,” he told the crowd, “I’m personally grateful for the important work National Geographic does.” Across town at that same mo- ment, his 86-year-old father, Ru- pert — who once called climate change “alarmist nonsense” — was still dealing with fallout at his most cherished channel, Fox News. Bill O’Reilly, the pugna- cious and top-rated talk show host, had been ousted that day af- ter allegations of sexual har- assment involving multiple wom- en. It was James Murdoch — the one looking so unperturbed at the NatGeo presentation, posing for photos as waiters milled about in yellow suspenders and guests ate skirt steak and shrimp cocktail — who had most aggressively moved against Mr. O’Reilly. The same had happened in July, when Roger Ailes, who founded Fox News with Rupert Murdoch, was forced to resign amid his own sex- ual harassment scandal. This is what generational change at one of the globe’s most powerful media conglomerates looks like. With James and his elder brother, Lachlan, 45, who is the ex- ecutive chairman of 21st Century Fox, firmly entrenched as their fa- ther’s successors, they are now forcibly exerting themselves. Their father remains very in- Sons Steer Murdoch Empire Away From Its Past By BROOKS BARNES and SYDNEY EMBER Continued on Page 24 President Trump has promised a sweeping tax plan, arriving in the days ahead, that will be “big- ger, I believe, than any tax cut ever.” It will aim to bring down in- dividual and corporate rates, sim- plify the overall tax code and un- leash economic growth. Many tax experts say a key ele- ment to any fundamental over- haul is getting rid of certain de- ductions for businesses — the “special-interest giveaways that are masked as tax breaks,” as House Republicans describe many of them in their own pro- posal. That is the only way tax rates for much of the country can go down without starving the Treasury, the experts say. But there is a major roadblock to that fundamental change, and it comes from a sector well known to the president: the real estate in- dustry. As the nation’s first real estate developer-president — one who has refused to divest his holdings while occupying the Oval Office and has declined to release his past tax returns — Mr. Trump brings his career perspective to the tax question, as well as a sub- stantial financial stake in the out- come. His interest will be shared by small builders, brokers and con- tractors in congressional districts across the country. And as they showed in rolling back previous changes that had taken away ad- vantages, their lobbying prowess is formidable. “There’s probably no special in- terest that’s more favored by the existing tax code than real estate,” said Steven M. Rosenthal, a real estate tax lawyer and senior fel- low at the centrist Urban-Brook- ings Tax Policy Center. “It’s really hard to take that industry on.” Much of the attention will focus on the tax deduction for interest payments by businesses, a provi- sion that Mr. Trump has used to great advantage in what little has been seen of his past tax returns. Major Hurdle in Tax Overhaul: The Breaks in Trump’s Own Field By JAMES B. STEWART Continued on Page 18 Heavy rains have forced an exodus of homeless people from Sacramento’s riverbanks, thrusting their distress and numbers into public view. PAGE 16 NATIONAL 16-25 California’s Flooded Homeless After a United passenger is dragged off a plane, a reporter takes a class that can help flight crews defuse tense and violent situations. PAGE 1 SUNDAY BUSINESS Smoothing the Turbulence The dancer Misty Copeland and the actress Sally Field talk of conquering career barriers and of the importance of artists’ being politically active. PAGE 1 SUNDAY STYLES When Misty Met Sally Nicholas Kristof PAGE 11 SUNDAY REVIEW U(DF47D3)W+#!_!/!=!/ At least 140 soldiers were killed on Friday, an official said, making it the single deadliest known assault on an Afghan base during the war. PAGE 12 INTERNATIONAL 4-15 Toll Soars in Taliban Attack Printed in Chicago $6.00 Sunny. Patchy clouds north. Highs in the 60s to the lower 70s. Clear south tonight. Cloudy north. Lows in the upper 30s to the lower 40s. Weather map appears on Page 19. National Edition
