VOL. CLXVII . . . No. 58,060 © 2018 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, MONDAY, AUGUST 20, 2018

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WASHINGTON — As a corpo-rate lawyer, William L. Wehrumworked for the better part of a dec-ade to weaken air pollution rulesby fighting the EnvironmentalProtection Agency in court on be-half of chemical manufacturers,refineries, oil drillers and coal-burning power plants.

Now, Mr. Wehrum is about todeliver one of the biggest victoriesyet for his industry clients — thistime from inside the Trump ad-ministration as the government’stop air pollution official.

On Tuesday, President Trump isexpected to propose a vast roll-back of regulations on emissionsfrom coal plants, including manyowned by members of a coal-burning trade association thathad retained Mr. Wehrum and hisfirm as recently as last year topush for the changes.

The proposal strikes at theheart of climate-change regula-tions adopted by the Obama ad-ministration to force changeamong polluting industries, andfollows the relaxation of separaterules governing when powerplants must upgrade air pollutionequipment. Mr. Wehrum, who hasled the E.P.A.’s clean air officesince November, also helped de-liver the changes in several ofthose rules.

The rollbacks are part of the ad-ministration’s effort to bring regu-latory relief to the coal industry,and other major sources of air pol-lution. But to proponents of atougher stance on industries thatcontribute to global warming, Mr.Wehrum is regarded as the singlebiggest threat inside the E.P.A.,with Tuesday’s expected an-nouncement to weaken what isknown as the Clean Power Planthe most recent evidence of hishandiwork.

“They basically found the mostaggressive and knowledgeablefox and said, ‘Here are the keys tothe henhouse,’” said Bruce Buck-heit, an air pollution expert whoworked for the Justice Depart-

INDUSTRY INSIDERPUSHES TO ERODECLEAN AIR RULES

NOW WORKING FOR E.P.A.

Ethics Loophole EnablesLawyer to Advance

Ex-Clients’ Goals

By ERIC LIPTON

Continued on Page A12

Federal authorities investigat-ing whether President Trump’sformer personal lawyer and fixer,Michael D. Cohen, committedbank and tax fraud have zeroed inon well over $20 million in loansobtained by taxi businesses thathe and his family own, accordingto people familiar with the matter.

Investigators are also examin-ing whether Mr. Cohen violatedcampaign finance or other laws byhelping to arrange financial dealsto secure the silence of womenwho said they had affairs with Mr.Trump. The inquiry has enteredthe final stage and prosecutorsare considering filing charges bythe end of August, two of the peo-ple said.

Any criminal charges againstMr. Cohen would deal a significantblow to the president. Mr. Cohen,52, worked for the president’scompany, the Trump Organiza-tion, for more than a decade. Hewas one of Mr. Trump’s most loyaland visible aides and called him-self the president’s personal law-yer after Mr. Trump took office.

The bank loans under scrutiny,the total of which has not beenpreviously reported, came fromtwo financial institutions in theNew York region that have ca-tered to the taxi industry, SterlingNational Bank and the MelroseCredit Union, according to busi-ness records and people withknowledge of the matter, includ-ing a banker who reviewed thetransactions.

Federal investigators in NewYork are seeking to determinewhether Mr. Cohen misrepre-sented the value of his assets toobtain the loans, which exceed$20 million.

They are also examining howhe handled the income from histaxi medallions and whether hefailed to report it to the InternalRevenue Service.

The two lenders were cited inthe search warrants for raids thatfederal agents conducted this

Loans InquiryMay Soon PutCohen in Bind

Investigators Look IntoPossible Bank Fraud

This article is by William K. Rash-baum, Ben Protess and Maggie Ha-berman.

Continued on Page A18

JES AZNAR FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

The wake for Allan Rafael in the Philippines. He was sick from cancer, not heroin, when he was arrested, and he died in jail. Page A7.A Drug War’s Cruelty

CONWAY, Pa. — The rules areworkable enough in the righthands, in the right corner of aright-leaning region of a state likethis one.

Avoid the jacket-and-tie look, sovoters — wary enough of Demo-crats — do not think they are look-ing at a Jehovah’s Witness. “Thathappened,” recalled Representa-tive Conor Lamb, now in a poloshirt.

Pivot to safe subjects. After a lo-cal here loudly mocked the idea of

“Russian collusion” with Presi-dent Trump to a peer, Mr. Lamb,34, moved in to introduce himself,telling the man (who said he wasRussian) about falling in love withRussian cuisine when he was inthe Marines.

And if all else fails — and it will,often — there is always prayer.

“I was reading a little Isaiah thismorning,” Mr. Lamb said at a townfestival recently, approachingPaul Strano, 69, whose hat read,“F.B.I.: Firm Believer In Jesus.”The two bowed their heads.

“A man of faith, backing theparty of abortion, homosexualpromotion,” Mr. Strano, a Trump

supporter, said afterward. “Butthe man sold himself.” Mr. Lambhad his vote.

In his 2016 victory, Mr. Trumpswiped several states that Demo-crats had assumed were theirs:Michigan, Wisconsin, Florida. Butperhaps no outcome matched thepsychic toll of losing Pennsylva-nia, where the past Democraticcoalition of city-dwelling liberals,racial minorities and white work-ing-class voters in union towns

had long defined the party’s iden-tity as a big-tent enterprise.

Two years later, a return topower — winning the House inNovember, winning the presiden-cy in 2020 — will hinge in largemeasure on how effectively Dem-ocrats can connect with voterswho migrated to Mr. Trump (orwho stayed home altogether, disil-lusioned by a Democratic Partymany of them once supported).The challenge is real: Unemploy-ment in the state is below 5 per-cent, and Mr. Trump’s approvalrating, while underwater over allin Pennsylvania, remains high

Democrats Try to Reclaim Pennsylvania, a Lost Symbol of PowerBy MATT FLEGENHEIMER

and THOMAS KAPLAN

REBOUND

A Drive to Flip Trump States

Continued on Page A15

The Italian actress and directorAsia Argento was among the firstwomen in the movie business topublicly accuse the producer Har-vey Weinstein of sexual assault.She became a leading figure in the#MeToo movement. Herboyfriend, the culinary televisionstar Anthony Bourdain, eagerlyjoined the fight.

But in the months that followedher revelations about Mr. Wein-stein last October, Ms. Argentoquietly arranged to pay $380,000to her own accuser: Jimmy Ben-nett, a young actor and rock musi-cian who said she had sexually as-saulted him in a California hotelroom years earlier, when he wasonly two months past his 17thbirthday. She was 37. The age ofconsent in California is 18.

That claim and the subsequentarrangement for payments arelaid out in documents betweenlawyers for Ms. Argento and Mr.Bennett, a former child actor whoonce played her son in a movie.

The documents, which weresent to The New York Timesthrough encrypted email by anunidentified party, include a selfiedated May 9, 2013, of the two lyingin bed. As part of the agreement,Mr. Bennett, who is now 22, gavethe photograph and its copyrightto Ms. Argento, now 42. Threepeople familiar with the case saidthe documents were authentic.

The Times has tried repeatedlysince Thursday to get a response

#MeToo StarSettled Claim

Of Her OwnBy KIM SEVERSON

Continued on Page A9

CEUTA, Spain — For most mi-grants from Africa, the last stageof their trip to Europe involvessome sort of perilous sea crossing.At the border in Ceuta, there isjust a fence.

Ceuta (pronounced say-YOU-tah) is one of the two Spanish com-munities on the north coast ofwhat otherwise would be Moroc-co, the only places where Europehas land borders with Africa. Theother enclave is Melilla, farthereast along the same coast.

Here, all that separates Europefrom migrants is a double fence,20 feet high and topped withbarbed wire, stretching the fourmiles across the peninsula and di-viding tiny Ceuta from Morocco —plus 1,100 Spanish federal policeand Guardia Civil officers, a para-military police force.

They patrol a crossing pointthat has come under growingpressure.

After Italy’s new governmentclosed the door to migrants, ef-forts to cross into Spain have morethan quadrupled in 2018, makingit the No. 1 European destination

for migrants from Africa.In the week ending Aug. 12, ac-

cording to the International Orga-nization for Migration, 1,419 mi-grants reached Spain, comparedwith 359 to Italy and 527 toGreece.

But the sea crossing to Spain,through the narrow straits of Gi-braltar, is more dangerous thanother passages, because of strongcurrents where the Mediterra-nean Sea meets the Atlantic.

Through June, 294 migrantsdrowned in the western Mediter-ranean, compared with 224 in all

‘All of Africa Is Here’: Hopes of Climbing to SpainBy ROD NORDLAND

The fence that separates Ceuta, Spain, from Morocco attracts thousands of African migrants.JUAN MEDINA/REUTERS

Continued on Page A6

The green litter basket hadstood on a street corner in Harlemfor as long as anyone could re-member, collecting unwantedplastic bottles, candy wrappersand crumpled bags and papers.

Then one day it was gone. And itwas not the only one: Over thecourse of the past year, 222 othertrash cans have also disappeared.

An only-in-New York crimespree? No. More like the heavyhand of municipal bureaucrats.

The New York City SanitationDepartment has taken away thelitter baskets from Harlem pri-marily because it says that whilethe baskets are intended only forlitter from pedestrians, most hadbeen crammed full of trash bagsand debris from homes and busi-nesses.

The finger-wagging policy hasbeen applied well beyond Harlem,with misused trash cans hauledaway from neighborhoods acrossthe city, including the Upper WestSide, Brooklyn Heights, FortGreene, Bay Ridge, the SouthBronx, Maspeth and Ridgewood.In the past year, 1,131 litter basketshave vanished from city street

corners, or about 5 percent of the23,250 litter baskets dispersed incommercial and heavily used pe-destrian corridors. The majoritywere removed for the offense ofchronic misuse, though some bas-kets were also found in spots thatdid not meet the commercial cri-teria.

But no other area has felt theimpact as much as Harlem andnow its residents and leaders are

New York Wants Tidy Streets. So It Cuts Back on Trash Cans.

By WINNIE HU

Continued on Page A19

Harlem has lost 223 trash cansin a year, prompting an outcry.

DAVID DEE DELGADO FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

IN THE DARK The president’s legalteam says it doesn’t know whatthe White House counsel told theMueller investigation. PAGE A11

“Game of Thrones” fans are swarmingDubrovnik, Croatia, site of the show’sKing’s Landing. The city is settinglimits on tourism. PAGE A4

INTERNATIONAL A4-7

When TV Tourists Invade

Stacey Abrams, the Democratic nomi-nee for Georgia’s governor, has stood onliberal principle but also sought com-mon ground with Republicans. PAGE A8

NATIONAL A8-15

Progressive, and PragmaticAs questions swirl about whether Teslawill go private — and how Elon Musk isfaring as chief executive — one crucialfactor looms large over the company’sfuture: its balance sheet. PAGE B1

BUSINESS DAY B1-5

A Financial Test for Tesla

Maxine McCormick won her first worldchampionship in fly-casting in 2016. Shedefended her title this year. She’s 14years old. PAGE D1

SPORTSMONDAY D1-6

A Fly-Casting ProdigyLiteracy in this Himalayan kingdom was3 percent in the 1950s. Now, it’s home toa flourishing literary scene. Above, theBuddha Dordenma in Thimpu. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-6

Telling Bhutan’s Stories

In Afghanistan, there is hope that theTaliban and the government will worktoward peace talks. PAGE A5

Calls for Afghan Cease-FireA street sign is named after a revolu-tionary leader whose violence con-cerned a City Council panel. PAGE A17

Joy in Flatbush’s ‘Little Haiti’For the first time, strikeouts may exceedhits in a major league season. Attend-ance is down, and anxiety is up. PAGE D1

Baseball’s Strikeout Crisis

Years after one of the most ruinousfinancial crises to hit Europe, over athird of the Greek population is in pov-erty, unemployment remains high, andwages have tumbled. PAGE B1

The End of Greece’s Bailout

Catholics attended Mass after hundredsof priests in Pennsylvania were accusedof abusing children. PAGE A17

NEW YORK A17-19

A Difficult Day at Church

Charles M. Blow PAGE A21

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A20-21

Late EditionToday, periodic clouds and sunshine,less humid, high 76. Tonight, partlycloudy, low 66. Tomorrow, varyingamounts of clouds, more humid,high 78. Weather map, Page A16.

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