THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. **** Saturday/Sunday, October 19 - 20, 2019 |A
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an economic commentator and
a former candidate for the
Federal Reserve Board,
and Republican economist
Lawrence Lindsey, the people
said.
“There was a general con-
sensus that the economy was
really strong, the best econ-
omy we’ve had in 30 years,
and that what’s going to get
him re-elected is the econ-
omy,” said Mr. Moore, who ad-
vised Mr. Trump during his
2016 campaign.
But “we all agreed that the
uncertainty about the trade
situation with China is a nega-
tive,” Mr. Moore said.
Mr. Trump countered that
the Federal Reserve shared
blame for any signs of a down-
turn, and should be doing
more to stimulate growth.
Midway through the meeting,
he called in one of his closest
China advisers, Peter Navarro,
a trade hawk who believes the
U.S. has been far too accom-modative with China.
“Where’s Peter?” Mr.
Trump said, according to two
people familiar with the meet-
ing. “Get Navarro in here.”
Mr. Navarro appeared in
the Oval Office a few minutes
later.
It isn’t known what influ-
ence the meeting had on the
president’s thinking ahead of
the negotiations with China.By Oct. 11, the U.S. had agreed
to put off a round of U.S. tariff
increases originally scheduled
for October, while China had
agreed to increase purchases
of U.S. agricultural products.
Uncertainty over trade has
kept financial markets on
edge, and the views expressed
by the economists in the Oval
Office last week are shared
widely on Wall Street. Mr.
Moore and his colleagues
urged the president to seek a
truce, saying such a detente
would remove “that obstacle
to growth right now, you’ll see
a nice rebound in 2020, and
he’ll be in a very strong posi-
tion to get re-elected.”
A Trump administration of-
ficial, asked to comment on
the meeting, said the presi-
dent hears from a number of
different advisers before de-
ciding himself. His support of
last week’s “first phase”
agreement was based on the
work of the lead negotiators—Treasury Secretary Steven
Mnuchin and U.S. Trade Rep-
resentative Robert Lighthi-
zer—not because of a meeting
days before the latest round of
talks had begun, the official
said.
Mr. Lindsey, who held Mr.
Kudlow’s position under Presi-
dent George W. Bush, declined
to comment.
Mr. Trump has approached
trade as a protectionist, argu-
ing that tariffs on steel and
other goods can boost Ameri-
can manufacturing and pro-
vide leverage to win conces-
sions from trading partners.
Mr. Trump has relied on a
number of advisers who share
these views, including Mr. Na-
varro.
These views are at odds
with the traditional stance of
many in the Republican Party.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell (R., Ky.) com-
plained Sept. 30 in a television
interview about the impact ofthe trade war on American
farmers.
Mr. Trump is “under im-
mensepressurefromWall
Street and those members of
the Senate that are aligned
with the big donors to get rid
of tariffs,” said Stephen Ban-
non, former White House chief
strategist and an ally of Mr.
Navarro on China. “If they
have to roll out ‘free market’
economists that have served
as Wall Street’s biggest cheer-
leaders to go down to the Oval
and try to convince him to do
it, they will.”
During the Oct. 8 meeting,
Mr. Trump repeated his dis-
content with Fed Chairman Je-
rome Powell, who was named
by Mr. Trump to the job two
years ago. The president has
fumed for months that the
central-bank leader wasn’t do-
ing more to stimulate the
economy.
—Alex Leary
contributed to this article.President Trump’s top eco-
nomic adviser last week ar-
ranged an Oval Office briefing
with outside experts who
warned the president that
continued escalation of U.S.-
China trade tensions could im-
peril the economy and hurt
Mr. Trump’s chances for re-
election, according to people
familiar with the meeting.
The Oct. 8 briefing, which
came two days before trade
talks between senior U.S. and
Chinese officials, was arranged
by Larry Kudlow, the director
of the White House National
Economic Council. The meet-
ing included Stephen Moore,
BYWILLIAMMAULDIN
ANDNICKTIMIRAOS
China Truce Followed Oval Office Appeal
Top economic advisers
told Trump tensions
were hurting economy
and his 2020 chances
Larry Kudlow set up meeting.ALEX EDELMAN/BLOOMBERG NEWSBOSTON—Another group of
parents charged in the college
admissions cheating scandal
said they planned to plead
guilty, a move that comes in
advance of expected new
charges against holdouts.
Two parents on Friday and
another on Thursday said they
would join 15 other parents
who have already pleaded
guilty, and are now in the sen-
tencing phase. Sentences for
those parents have ranged
from probation to five months,
lighter than some had ex-
pected, which also could have
helped push this batch of three
more parents to take deals.
With the new pleas, more
than half of the 35 parents
charged will have admitted
guilt. Seventeen are still fight-
ing allegations that they
worked with the scheme’s con-
fessed ringleader, William
“Rick” Singer, to rig SAT and
ACT scores or bribe coaches to
falsely tag the teens as re-
cruited athletes.
A total of 52 people have
been charged since March in
connection with the sprawling
case, including college coaches,
testing-site administrators and
employees of Mr. Singer. In all,
27 people have pleaded guilty
or indicated plans to do so.
The relatively short prison
terms may be driving other
parents to reconsider going to
a jury trial, where they could
get more severe punishments,
people familiar with the mat-
ter said. Some defense lawyers
have also been concerned the
government could bring addi-
tional charges as soon as next
week against those who
pleaded not guilty, the people
said. Those charges could be
related to alleged bribery of
individuals at colleges that re-
ceive federal funding.
A spokeswoman from the
U.S. attorney’s office in Massa-
chusetts declined to comment.
Three parents are now
scheduled to appear in federal
court here to plead guilty to
fraud conspiracy and money-
laundering conspiracy charges
on Monday: Douglas Hodge,
the former chief executive of
bond managerPacific Invest-
ment Management Co.; Ma-
nuel Henriquez, who until his
arrest led specialty finance
firmHercules Capital Inc.;
and Michelle Janavs, whose
family wealth comes from
Chef America Inc., the com-
pany that created Hot Pockets
microwavable snacks.
Mr. Henriquez was charged
with his wife, Elizabeth. Her
attorneys didn’t respond to re-
quests for comment on Friday.
The Atherton, Calif., couple
allegedly paid Mr. Singer, a
college counselor, to fraudu-
lently boost their older daugh-
ter’s SAT test scores and
younger daughter’s ACT and
SAT subject test scores.
Ms. Janavs, of Newport
Coast, Calif., allegedly paid Mr.
Singer to arrange for a corrupt
proctor to fix ACT scores for
both her daughters.
Separately on Friday, Califor-
nia developer Robert Flaxman
was sentenced to one month in
prison and a $50,000 fine.
BYMELISSAKORN
ANDJENNIFERLEVITZ
More Pleas
Of Guilty in
Admissions
Scandal
Concerns about high winds forced New Orleans officials to delay plans to demolish cranes that were left unstable after last weekend’s collapse of a hotel under construction.GERALD HERBERT/ASSOCIATED PRESSplanned to have demolition ex-
perts set off several explosions
to bring the cranes down
safely on Friday, ahead of the
storm, but they had to move it
to Saturday because of con-
cerns about high winds.
“The wind is our biggest
problem,” New Orleans Fire
Chief Tim McConnell said at a
news conference Friday. “It’s a
precarious situation.”Parts of the hotel under con-
struction in a historic section
of the city frequented by tour-
ists, collapsed Oct. 12, sending
metal and debris onto the
streets below. Three workers
were killed and at least 20 peo-
ple were hurt.
Local and federal investiga-
tors are looking into the cause
of the accident.
Officials have cordoned offblocks around the construc-
tion site and plan to evacuate
a part of the downtown area
and the French Quarter, in-
cluding some nearby hotels, as
a precaution before the
charges are detonated, Chief
McConnell said. The process
should take about four hours,
according to officials.
Tropical Storm Nestor, with
sustained winds of 60 miles anhour, wasn’t expected to di-
rectly hit Louisiana. As of Fri-
day afternoon, it was in the
Gulf of Mexico about 200
miles south of the mouth of
the Mississippi River.
Tropical-storm force winds
were expected along parts of
the northern Gulf Coast later
Friday, as the weather system
moved toward the Florida
Panhandle.Tropical Storm Nestor com-
plicated plans to demolish two
damaged construction cranes
on the edge of New Orleans’s
French Quarter that were left
unstable after last weekend’s
fatal collapse of a section of
the Hard Rock Hotel under
construction there.
City officials originallyBYCAMERONMCWHIRTERStorm Delays City’s Plan to Blow Up Cranes
initiative provided protections
and work permits to undocu-
mented immigrants who were
brought to the U.S. as chil-
dren. This week, the high
court considered state iden-
tity-fraud prosecutions against
immigrants who provide false
Social Security numbers when
applying for jobs.
The new asylum case cen-
ters on a Sri Lankan man who
fled to Latin America after al-
legedly facing political perse-cution in his home country. Vi-
jayakumar Thuraissigiam
crossed the border into the
U.S. near San Diego in 2017
and soon after was appre-
hended by a border-patrol
agent. An asylum officer and
immigration judge each re-
jected his claims, and he was
slated for expedited removal.
Mr. Thuraissigiam then
filed a petition in federal
court, arguing he hadn’t been
given a meaningful opportu-
nity to make his case. (Immi-
gration judges serve in theJustice Department, not the
federal judiciary.)
Courts in most circum-
stances are barred by statute
from reviewing expedited-re-
moval orders, but the Ninth
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
ruled the Constitution didn’t
allow Congress to suspend ac-
cess to the federal courts for
people in Mr. Thuraissigiam’s
circumstances.
The Supreme Court will re-
view that decision in early
2020, with a decision expected
by June.
Lawyers for the American
Civil Liberties Union, repre-
senting Mr. Thuraissigiam,
said their client was entitled
to challenge his removal order
in court because he had been
apprehended and detained on
U.S. soil. “That he was not le-
gally admitted into the coun-
try does not alter that result,”
they said in a court brief.
The case ties into one of
several major asylum issues
that are working their way
through the courts as the
Trump administration has in-
tensified efforts to turn away
asylum seekers amid a soaring
number of claims.
The efforts include seeking
to apply expedited removal
proceedings to a larger pool of
people, a policy that is being
challenged in separate litiga-
tion.The Supreme Court agreed
to consider whether asylum
seekers who cross into the U.S.
illegally can challenge govern-
ment efforts to quickly deport
them.
The justices said Friday
they would hear a Trump ad-
ministration appeal of a ruling
that said migrants can go to
court to contest government
determinations that they are
ineligible for asylum and
should be removed swiftly.
The administration said the
ruling had undermined “the
government’s ability to control
the border” and subverted a
legal provision that says mi-
grants ordered for expedited
removal can’t go to court.
In a separate case, the Su-
preme Court said it would re-
view deportation litigation
against a Lebanese immigrant
who says he will be tortured if
returned to his home country.
The appeals add more high-
stakes immigration cases to a
docket that already has sev-
eral. The Supreme Court is set
to hear oral arguments next
month on whether the Trump
administration acted lawfully
when it canceled Deferred Ac-
tion for Childhood Arrivals,
the Obama-era immigration
program. Known as DACA, theBYBRENTKENDALL
ANDJESSBRAVINSupreme Court Takes On
Issue of Quick Deportations
The justices plan to
address several
more high-stakes
immigration matters.