VOL. CLXIX . . . No. 58,548 © 2019 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2019

C M Y K Nxxx,2019-12-21,A,001,Bs-4C,E2

WASHINGTON — Shatteringconvention, he held open a Su-preme Court seat for 11 months.He twice changed Senate rules tocreate a record-setting assemblyline of conservative federal judi-cial confirmations. He has beenruthless in his control of the Sen-ate floor, denying Republicansand Democrats alike much oppor-tunity to debate legislation.

In response, Democrats havecalled Senator Mitch McConnell,Republican of Kentucky and themajority leader, the grim reaper.He embraces the nickname withenthusiasm.

Now, as a showdown intensifiesover President Trump’s impeach-ment trial, the test for Mr. McCon-nell is whether he can again bull-doze over Democrats while keep-ing his Republican colleagues to-

gether, persuading them to shareboth his low regard for the im-peachment charges and his viewof the Senate’s role.

As his successful blockade ofJudge Merrick B. Garland’s nomi-nation to the Supreme Courtshowed in 2016, Mr. McConnell isnot afraid to defy norms and takeintense heat for doing so, as longas he emerges a winner.

“Only one outcome will pre-serve core precedents rather thansmash them into bits in a fit of par-tisan rage because one party stillcannot accept the American peo-ple’s choice in 2016,” Mr. McCon-nell said this week on the Senatefloor as he unspooled a 30-minutedissection of what he saw as theflaws in the Democratic-ledHouse impeachment inquiry, hisvoice dripping with disdain. “TheSenate’s duty is clear.”

MCCONNELL SETSCOLLISION COURSE

ON IMPEACHMENT

SHOWDOWN OVER TRIAL

Senate Majority Leader Fights to Limit Scope

of Proceedings

By CARL HULSE

Mitch McConnell embracesthe nickname “grim reaper.”

SAMUEL CORUM FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A18

The publication is small, reach-ing just a fraction of the evangeli-cal movement.

But when Christianity Todaycalled for President Trump’s re-moval in a blistering editorial onThursday, it met the full force andfury of the president and his mostprominent allies in the Christianconservative world. If the re-sponse seemed disproportionate,it vividly reflected the fact thatwhite evangelicals are the corner-stone of Mr. Trump’s political baseand their leaders are among hismost visible and influential sup-porters.

In the background, however, isa more nuanced reality that Chris-tianity Today’s editorial hints at: anumber of conservative Chris-tians remain deeply uncomfort-able with an alliance with thepresident.

Mr. Trump, after being im-peached this week, is extremelysensitive to any signs of a fracturein his political coalition and has re-peatedly insisted that the Republi-can Party and its voters are unani-mously behind him. And on Fri-day he lashed out on two separateoccasions at Christianity Today,seeking to brand it as a “far leftmagazine” that was doing theDemocratic Party’s bidding.

“I guess the magazine, ‘Christi-anity Today,’ is looking for Eliza-beth Warren, Bernie Sanders, orthose of the socialist/communistbent, to guard their religion,” Mr.Trump wrote on Twitter. “Howabout Sleepy Joe? The fact is, noPresident has ever done what Ihave done for Evangelicals, or re-ligion itself!”

Evidently leaving little tochance, Mr. Trump’s re-electioncampaign announced on Fridayevening that he would go to Miamion Jan. 3 to start an “Evangelicalsfor Trump” coalition.

The response from his leadingChristian supporters was lacedwith animosity that mimicked Mr.Trump’s signature style, and re-flected the extent to which theyhave moved into lock step withhim, even in rhetoric.

Ralph Reed, founder of theFaith and Freedom Coalition, saidon Twitter that he was “sad” to seethe publication “echo the argu-ments of The Squad & the Resist-ance & deepen its irrelevanceamong Christians.”

Franklin Graham, whose father,the Rev. Billy Graham, foundedChristianity Today, said in a Face-book post that the editorial was a“totally partisan attack” and saidthat the elder Graham had votedfor the president in 2016, a little

EvangelicalsClosing RanksWith President

Magazine Hits a Nervein Censuring Trump

By ELIZABETH DIASand JEREMY W. PETERS

Continued on Page A17

BELÉM, Brazil — The maskedgunmen pulled up to Wanda’s Barat 3:49 p.m. on May 19 and beganfiring the moment they left theirvehicles. Two people, includingWanda herself, died on the patio.

Inside, the gunmen worked insilence: two in front, shooting un-armed patrons at the bar and inthe main room, while a third fol-lowed behind with a gun in eachhand, firing a single shot into thehead of anyone still moving.

When the massacre ended, 11people lay dead, slumped over thebar, draped across chairs or hud-dled on the floor. Only two peoplesurvived, one by hiding under afriend’s lifeless body, case filesshow.

Once again, masked gunmenhad struck in the Brazilian city of

Belém, as they have for nearly adecade, stalking the streets inopen defiance of the law. Robbing,extorting and killing without com-punction.

Yet they did not belong to one ofthe many gangs that traffic drugsor guns in Brazil, leaving a trail ofcorpses.

They were cops.The killings drew national at-

tention to the police militias thathave long plagued Belém, a dilapi-dated port city on the AmazonRiver. Part death squad, partcriminal enterprise, their ranks

are filled with retired and off-dutypolice officers who kill at will, of-ten with total impunity.

In fact, the slaughter at Wanda’sBar was not unique because off-duty police officers gunned downcivilians without cause. Suchkillings are routine. What madethis case stand out beyond its bru-tality was the government’s re-sponse: It decided to prosecute.

Of the seven people chargedwith the crime, four were off-dutypolice officers — including thethree suspected gunmen.

“We’ve discovered a cancer in-side the police,” said ArmandoBrasil, one of the prosecutors.“Now, we are seeing just how far ithas spread.”

The militias operate in the shad-ows of a severe crackdown oncrime by the Brazilian govern-ment, which has openly declared

Killing at Will in Brazil’s Brazen Police MilitiasBy AZAM AHMED

Police militias plague the city of Belém, Brazil, where retired and off-duty officers take a heavy-handed approach to fighting crime.TYLER HICKS/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A6

Part Death Squad, PartGang, Called Heroic

and ‘a Cancer’

The mother was at home pre-paring cheese sticks and a milk-shake when she got the call. Onthe other line, a prosecutor hadsurprising news about the manwho had been convicted of repeat-edly sexually assaulting her childand sentenced last year to 23years in prison.

In one of his last acts in office,the outgoing governor, Matt Bev-in, had weighed in on the case. Cit-ing a lack of physical evidence anda “sloppy” investigation, Mr. Bev-in issued an unconditional pardon.The man, Micah Schoettle, 41, aclose relative of the girl, walkedout of prison.

“I just kept saying, ‘How?How? How?’” recalled themother, who asked not to benamed to protect the identity ofher teenage daughter, who saidshe was 9 when the assaults be-gan. “He spent less time in prisonthan he did molesting my child.”

Mr. Bevin issued more than 600pardons and reduced sentences inthe final weeks of his administra-tion. They included cases in whichthe governor — in an extraordi-nary exercise of personal judg-ment that went well beyond typi-cal governors’ pardons — re-leased inmates serving time forserious crimes, based on his ownconclusion that they had beenwrongfully convicted.

Many of the reprieves had beenadvocated by defense lawyers orgroups who challenge question-able convictions. But a review ofpardon orders, court records andinterviews with lawyers and Bev-in administration officials showsthat in a number of cases, Mr. Bev-in went even further than thoserecommendations, and in some in-stances made his decision without

Outrage EruptsAs a GovernorIssues Pardons

This article is by Sarah Mervosh,Campbell Robertson and MikeBaker.

Continued on Page A20

KARSTEN MORAN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

With less than a week till Christmas, a deliveryman in the Bronx headed to one more tree-trimming.It’s Just Around the Corner

For years, there wasn’t muchconfusion about who could join theInternational Brotherhood of RealBearded Santas, the largest mem-bership organization of Santas inthe world. It was open only to menwith whiskers long enough to bestyled like St. Nick’s, which couldwithstand a firm tug from a formi-

dable toddler.Then, in 2016, came the vote

about whether to admit Mrs.Clauses. After some initial skepti-cism, the proposal passed. But thepush to open membership toelves, Grinches, reindeerhandlers and Santas with de-signer beards has proved morecontentious. It was voted down,but could re-emerge in the future

if enough members demand it.These are boom times for Santa,

now an increasingly global holi-day fixture, beloved from Sheboy-gan to Hong Kong. But he’s strug-gling with the same issues of privi-lege and inclusion that haveplagued precincts south of theNorth Pole. Then there’s thebroader question of mission. Is be-ing Santa an occupation in need of

clear professional standards? Oris it a calling? Welcome to Santa’sWorld 2019.

“The next generation of Christ-mas performers, who have grownup with a lot more inclusivity, justdon’t see what the big deal is,” saidDeanna Golden, an independentMrs. Claus who argued for therights of elves and clean-shaven

Who Gets to Be Santa? A Brotherhood in Discord Over InclusionBy FARAH STOCKMAN

Continued on Page A17

Over the course of 150 pages,the indictment described a re-markably vast criminal enter-prise. There were seven murderplots with guns, machetes andMolotov cocktails. There were as-saults in bars, meetings in localbakeries and gang initiations with13-second beatings.

Men with nicknames like Droopand Broccoli were said to havedealt in crack cocaine, fentanyland oxycodone. Gang membershad to adhere to a 20-point list ofrules and regulations, includingone that stated that to move up inthe ranks, members had to com-mit at least four murders.

All of this was laid out in volumi-nous detail as the Suffolk Countydistrict attorney’s office an-nounced on Friday that it had

brought a series of sweepingcharges against 96 members andassociates of the notorious trans-national street gang known asMS-13, capping a two-year investi-gation with a team of local, stateand federal partners.

Originally founded in Los Ange-les by refugees from El Salvador,MS-13 has long had a base of oper-ations in Suffolk County, on theEast End of Long Island, whichhas been plagued by gang vio-lence in recent years.

But officials said that the caserevealed on Friday was the big-gest crackdown ever on the groupin New York, and had dealt its lo-cal cells, or cliques, a significantblow.

“The goal of this investigation

Scores of Arrests on Long IslandIn ‘Major Blow’ to MS-13 Gang

By ALAN FEUER

Continued on Page A23

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The Syrian government considers somehealth workers enemies of the state.Four of them tell their stories. PAGE A12

INTERNATIONAL A4-14

Where Doctors Are CriminalsThe Faroe Islands are an unexpectedplace for the U.S. and China to fightover the tech giant Huawei. PAGE B1

BUSINESS B1-9

Puffins, Fish and Phone Wars

THIS WEEKEND

Unrest over a citizenship law has be-come a broader fight against the primeminister’s Hindu agenda. PAGE A4

Secular India Resists ModiViewers of streaming services maysoon see different brands during thesame scene. PAGE B1

You See Pepsi? I See Coke

A law professor who testified for im-peachment says that it’s not official untilthe House sends charges to the Senate.Other experts disagree. PAGE A18

NATIONAL A15-20

Impeached? He Says Not QuiteNetflix’s Roman Catholic buddy picture,while fictional, is a fascinating peek atfigures who have long intrigued a closewatcher of the Vatican. A Reporter’sNotebook by Daniel J. Wakin. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-8

The Tale of ‘The Two Popes’

Police took the unusual step of askingthe public for help finding a 14-year-oldboy who they believe may have fatallystabbed a Barnard student. PAGE A21

NEW YORK A21, 23

Manhunt for a Teen Suspect

Jim Sensenbrenner PAGE A25

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A24-25

Junior Johnson, who competed inNASCAR for 12 seasons, personified itscountry roots. He was 88. PAGE B13

OBITUARIES B13-14

Auto Racing Hall of Famer

After covering the Vietnam War, WardJust wrote fiction that probed Americansociety. He was 84. PAGE B13

Ex-Journalist Turned Novelist

Late EditionToday, periodic clouds and sunshine,cold, high 34. Tonight, partly cloudy,seasonably cold, low 30. Tomorrow,partly sunny, a milder afternoon,high 46. Weather map Page A22.

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