VOL. CLXVII . . . No. 57,977 © 2018 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, TUESDAY, MAY 29, 2018 U(D54G1D)y+?!$!$!#!{ The Staten Island Memorial Day parade, which began in 1918 during World War I, set off Monday on Forest Avenue with a contingent of R.O.T.C. cadets from the Air Force, top, and Navy midship- men, middle, and of course a marching band, above, from Port Richmond High School. PHOTOGRAPHS BY GARETH SMIT FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES Stars and Stripes and Trombones Purdue Pharma, the company that planted the seeds of the opi- oid epidemic through its ag- gressive marketing of OxyContin, has long claimed it was unaware of the powerful opioid painkiller’s growing abuse until years after it went on the market. But a copy of a confidential Jus- tice Department report shows that federal prosecutors investi- gating the company found that Purdue Pharma knew about “sig- nificant” abuse of OxyContin in the first years after the drug’s in- troduction in 1996 and concealed that information. Company officials had received reports that the pills were being crushed and snorted; stolen from pharmacies; and that some doc- tors were being charged with sell- ing prescriptions, according to dozens of previously undisclosed documents that offer a detailed look inside Purdue Pharma. But the drugmaker continued “in the face of this knowledge” to market OxyContin as less prone to abuse and addiction than other prescrip- tion opioids, prosecutors wrote in 2006. Based on their findings after a four-year investigation, the pros- ecutors recommended that three top Purdue Pharma executives be indicted on felony charges, includ- ing conspiracy to defraud the United States, that could have sent the men to prison if con- victed. But top Justice Department of- ficials in the George W. Bush ad- ministration did not support the move, said four lawyers who took Opioid’s Maker Hid Knowledge Of Wide Abuse Saw Early Evidence of Trouble, Report Says By BARRY MEIER Continued on Page A18 The question went out late one night on a private message chain of insurgent female candidates for Congress: Do you really attack a fellow Democrat? “I feel like I’ve been pulling punches,” wrote Alexandria Oca- sio-Cortez, who is challenging a longtime Democratic incumbent, Joe Crowley of New York, in a pri- mary. “Do you ever get any push- back from voters, or those who don’t want ‘party infighting?’” Within the hour, peers from Texas, Washington State and North Carolina had weighed in: Keep up the fight. “We’re not trying to ask permis- sion to get in the door,” Ms. Ocasio- Cortez, a 28-year-old organizer on Bernie Sanders’ presidential cam- paign, said in an interview. As Democratic women run for House, Senate and state offices in historic numbers this year, many are bucking the careful and cau- tious ways of politics. As Stacey Abrams showed last week, a black woman can win the Democratic nomination for governor in Geor- gia by running a proudly liberal campaign, for instance. For doz- ens of these candidates, con- fronting President Trump and winning seats and offices for Democrats are not the only goals: They want to run and win on their own terms. Some are coming for their own party. And many are not waiting their turn, as past genera- tions were mostly content to do. Like Ms. Abrams, many of these challengers are women who lean left, and many are women of color, raising pointed questions for a Democratic Party wrestling with its relationship to identity politics. Some are mounting primary chal- Gloves Off, Women Spar In ’18 Races By SUSAN CHIRA and MATT FLEGENHEIMER Continued on Page A16 WASHINGTON — As a candi- date, Donald J. Trump claimed that the United States govern- ment had known in advance about the Sept. 11 attacks. He hinted that An- tonin Scalia, a Supreme Court justice who died in his sleep two years ago, had been murdered. And for years, Mr. Trump pushed the notion that President Barack Obama had been born in Kenya rather than Honolulu, making him ineligible for the presidency. None of that was true. Last week, President Trump promoted new, unconfirmed accusations to suit his political narrative: that a “criminal deep state” element within Mr. Oba- ma’s government planted a spy deep inside his presidential campaign to help his rival, Hilla- ry Clinton, win — a scheme he branded “Spygate.” It was the latest indication that a president who has for decades trafficked in conspiracy theories has brought them from the fringes of public discourse to the Oval Office. Now that he is president, Mr. Trump’s baseless stories of se- cret plots by powerful interests appear to be having a distinct effect. Among critics, they have fanned fears that he is eroding public trust in institutions, un- dermining the idea of objective truth and sowing widespread suspicions about the government and news media that mirror his own. “The effect on the life of the nation of a president inventing conspiracy theories in order to distract attention from legitimate investigations or other things he dislikes is corrosive,” said Jon Meacham, a presidential histori- an and biographer. “The diabol- ical brilliance of the Trump strat- egy of disinformation is that many people are simply going to hear the charges and counter- charges, and decide that there must be something to them because the president of the United States is saying them.” The effects were evident in Washington on Thursday, when the Justice Department held a pair of unusual briefings with lawmakers to share sensitive information about the special TRUMP EMBRACES SHADOWY PLOTS, ERODING TRUST THEORIES FROM FRINGES Agencies Undermined by Claims of ‘Spygate’ and ‘Deep State’ By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS and MAGGIE HABERMAN Continued on Page A14 NEWS ANALYSIS Sometime before dawn on April 14, David Buckel left his small brick house on the edge of Prospect Park in Brooklyn, pulling a shopping cart. He passed the magnolia tree in the garden, the stone sculptures he had made. Then instead of walking to work, as he usually did on Saturdays, he went into the park. He turned onto the road that loops around the meadows and ball fields, and after less than a quarter of a mile, he veered onto the grass. The place he chose would surprise people later, when they came with flowers: It wasn’t a plaza or a spot where crowds gathered — just a stretch of patchy lawn on the shoulder of the road. It’s not clear how long Mr. Buckel stood there, or when he doused himself with gas, but at 5:55 a.m., as the light began to gather before sunrise, he sent an email to the news media explain- ing what he was about to do. The first 911 call came at 6:08 a.m.: man on fire. When responders arrived, the flames were going out. Mr. Buckel, a prominent civil rights lawyer turned environmental advocate, Seeking to Divine What Drove A Defender to Set Himself Afire By ANNIE CORREAL Continued on Page A20 Nine months after the Islamic State was driven from Mosul, the Iraqi city is showing verve and energy. PAGE A8 INTERNATIONAL A4-10 Signs of Life in Mosul Liberal evangelicals held a revival near Liberty University to protest Jerry Fal- well Jr.’s ties to the president. PAGE A11 NATIONAL A11-18 Moral Objection to Trumpism De Beers is getting into the lab-created diamond business with a new line of affordable fashion jewelry. PAGE B1 Diamonds Made Whenever Paul Krugman PAGE A22 EDITORIAL, OP-ED A22-23 ROME — He’s been called “gray,” “invisible” and “gentle to the point of seeming fragile.” Sil- vio Berlusconi, the former prime minister, once compared him to “a monk.” But on Monday, Italy’s quiet, white-haired president, Sergio Mattarella, emerged as the most contentious figure in Italian and European politics. His refusal to confirm a euroskeptic economist as a government minister set off the collapse of a populist coalition hours before it was expected to take control of the European Un- ion’s fourth largest economy. Mr. Mattarella’s defenders hailed him as the courageous pro- tector of Italy’s democracy, insti- tutions and financial health, while fuming populists sought to make the usually revered figure of the Italian head of state the country’s public enemy No. 1. They called for his impeachment, saying he had overstepped his constitu- tional bounds with delusions of grandeur, blocked the will of the people and destroyed Italian de- mocracy. In response, Mr. Mattarella pri- vately plugged along. On Monday morning, as mar- kets rose and fell with the whip- lashing events in Italy, Mr. Mattarella gave a new mandate to form a government to Carlo Cottarelli, a respected economist, former International Monetary Fund official and Italian govern- ment appointee, who told report- Italian President Sinks Coalition To Extinguish Anti-Euro Flames By JASON HOROWITZ Continued on Page A6 PARIS — The 4-year-old boy seemed to be suspended from a balcony. An adult standing on a nearby balcony seemed power- less to help. Disaster seemed the only possible outcome. Then, to the nimble rescue on the streets of Paris on Saturday evening, came a young man whom some French people have started to call the Spider-Man of the 18th, referring to the arron- dissement of Paris where the episode unfolded. With a combination of grit, agil- ity and muscle, the man hauled himself hand over hand from one balcony to another, springing from one parapet to grasp the next one up. A crowd that had gathered before he began his daring exploit urged him ever upward, accord- ing to onlookers’ video that was shared widely on social media. Finally, after scaling four bal- conies, the man reached the child and pulled him to safety. And sud- denly, an act of individual courage and resourcefulness began to play into Europe’s fraught and polar- ized debate about outsiders, im- migrants and refugees. The man, identified as Mamoudou Gassama, 22, is a mi- grant from Mali, a troubled former French colony in northwest Af- rica, who journeyed through Burkina Faso, Niger and Libya before making the dangerous Mediterranean Sea crossing to It- aly and arriving in France in Sep- tember, without documentation. On Monday, after his heroic res- cue of the boy, he met with Presi- dent Emmanuel Macron. Now, he will get the requisite documenta- tion to live legally in France. “I told him that in recognition of Migrant ‘Spider-Man’ Rescues 4-Year-Old and Wins Paris’s Heart By AURELIEN BREEDEN and ALAN COWELL Mamoudou Gassama’s daring rescue on Saturday in Paris. TAREK DANDACH, VIA REUTERS Continued on Page A7 Starbucks is under fire over its bias training. It’s not perfect, but it’s a start, Andrew Ross Sorkin writes. PAGE B1 BUSINESS DAY B1-5 Skepticism for Starbucks Doctors in San Francisco treated a fetus with an often fatal blood disorder. The child survived, but the long-term prog- nosis is still uncertain. PAGE D1 SCIENCE TIMES D1-8 A Life Saved Before Birth It could take up to 15 years, an expert said, to be sure the rogue state no long- er has nuclear weapons. PAGE A10 Disarming North Korea Officials in Wildwood, N.J., put a park- ing lot for cars (four-wheel-drive only) directly on the sand. PAGE A19 NEW YORK A19-21 Parking on the Beach Trailing at halftime, Golden State re- bounded to beat the Rockets and win the Western Conference finals. PAGE B6 SPORTSTUESDAY B6-12 Now It’s Warriors vs. Cavaliers At Sotheby’s, the rapper ASAP Rocky put himself in a glass booth and, among other things, dunked his head in ice water. Why? Well, it was a metaphor for something or another. PAGE C1 ARTS C1-6 Sinking Inside the Box Revived again, the series eventually re-approaches the manic pleasures of the show’s heyday, James Poniewozik says. But it takes time getting there, and doesn’t stay long. PAGE C1 It’s ‘Arrested Development’ Late Edition Today, clouds then some sunshine, noticeably warmer, high 87. Tonight, partly cloudy, low 66. Tomorrow, clouds and sunshine, not as warm, high 75. Weather map, Page B8. $3.00