Deadly fire in Liberia Flames swept through

a school, killing at least 28 children. A

Abortion landscape The U.S. rate has again

hit an all-time low, and a federal appeals

court debated the Tr ump administration’s

new restrictions on referrals. A6, B

LOCAL LIVING

Doing the garden,

digging the weeds

Who could ask for more:

Adrian Higgins has several

safe, effective ways to get

rid of garden invaders.

STYLE

‘Cancel culture’:

A guide to a war

Comedian Shane Gillis

lost his SNL gig over racist

remarks, but there’s a

larger fight going on. C

In the News

THE NATION

A woman who says she

is “Victim­1” in the New

York indictment against

sex offender Jeffrey Ep­

stein sued the executors

of his estate. A

Federal authorities

are conducting a probe

of a former compliance

officer at a McKesson

warehouse, alleging he

conspired to illegally

distribute narcotics. A

A leaked outline of a

White House proposal

to expand background

checks on firearm sales

prompted an uproar on

the right. A

The Pentagon has

warned of dire out­

comes if military proj­

ects canceled for Presi­

dent Trump’s border

wall don’t happen. A

Advocacy groups

are urging the GOP­

controlled Senate to

move to extend funding

for minority­serving col­

leges that is set to expire

this month. A

Amid calls for repara­

tions, experts are trying

to define who is a “de­

scendant of slavery.” A

THE WORLD

Canadian Prime Minis­

ter Justin Trudeau apol­

ogized after a photo

emerged showing him

in “brownface.” A

THE ECONOMY

Plaintiffs say the

family that controls

Purdue Pharma is seek­

ing to shield money they

diverted into their own

pockets. A

Washington-area

rental housing firms

used Facebook’s ad

system to discriminate

against older people,

according to human

rights allegations. A

GM dropped health­

care plans for thousands

of striking workers, a

sign that the impasse

could drag on. A

Users of Amazon’s

Alexa will be able to

dictate donations to

2020 presidential

campaigns starting in

October. A

THE REGION

Under pressure from

legislators, Maryland’s

governor began an

effort to compensate

five wrongly convicted

men. B

Metro officials, con­

cerned about the quality

of the tracks being built

for the Silver Line ex­

tension, have ordered

the contractor to stop

running test trains. B

Jack Evans has not had

to recuse himself from

D.C. Council votes per­

taining to the multiple

probes he is facing. B

Who will testify and

what to expect at a

House panel’s hearing

on a bill that would

make the District the

51st state. B

Inside

REUTERS

1

BUSINESS NEWS ....................... A

COMICS ....................................... C

OPINION PAGES.........................A

LOTTERIES...................................B

OBITUARIES ................................ B

TELEVISION ................................. C

WORLD NEWS............................A

CONTENT © 2019

The Washington Post / Year 142, No. 288

ABCDE

Prices may vary in areas outside metropolitan Washington. SU V1 V2 V3 V

Sunny 75/56 • Tomorrow: Sunny 82/61 B8 Democracy Dies in Darkness THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19 , 2019. $

BY KAREEM FAHIM,

CAROL MORELLO

AND JOHN WAGNER

istanbul — Tensions between

the United States and Iran ratch-

eted up Wednesday as Secretary of

State Mike Pompeo decried the

weekend attacks on the Saudi oil

industry as an “act of war” and

President Trump ordered a sub-

stantial increase in sanctions

against the government in Te hran.

With the Trump administra-

tion linking the sanctions step to

the airstrikes, Iran warned the

United States that it would retali-

ate for any attack against it, Irani-

an news agencies reported

Wednesday. An attack on Iranian

territory would be met with

a “rapid and crushing” response,

the Fars News Agency said.

Five days after the strikes on

Saudi oil facilities, for which a

Yemeni rebel group asserted re-

sponsibility, U.S. and Saudi offi-

cials a ll but e xplicitly accused Iran

of launching the attacks from its

territory. They presented physical

evidence and other details that

they said bolstered their asser-

tions of direct Iranian culpability.

The heightened tensions come

after several months of escalating

threats in the Persian Gulf, as Iran

has sought to intensify pressure

on the United States and its allies

in response, officials in Te hran say,

SEE IRAN ON A

BY HEATHER LONG

The Federal Reserve made a
modest reduction in interest rates
Wednesday in an effort to keep the
U.S. economy strong, a measured
approach that stopped far short of
the dramatic action President
Trump has demanded f or months.
In an extremely unusual move,
Trump blasted the Fed’s announce-
ment just 25 minutes after it was
made public, targeting Fed Chair
Jerome H. Powell’s leadership in
particular.
“Jay Powell and the Federal Re-
serve Fail Again,” Trump wrote on
Twitter, berating the Fed chair he
handpicked. “No ‘guts,’ no sense, n o
vision! A terrible communicator.”
The Fed’s decision to lower its
benchmark interest rate just shy of
2 percent, down from about 2.
percent, brought into sharp con-
trast the competing views of the
economy that are emanating from
the White House and the central
bank less than 14 m onths b efore the
2020 election.
SEE FED ON A

BY STEVE HENDRIX,

JAMES MCAULEY

AND RUTH EGLASH

jerusalem — First came the do-

over voting. Now comes the do-

over h aggling.

A day after their second dead-

heat election in five months, Is-

raelis awoke Wednesday with

their two main parties feverishly

jockeying for the support of the

smaller factions they will need to

form a governing coalition, leav-

ing uncertain the direction of the

country and the fate of its longest-

serving leader.

The wheeling and dealing that

followed April’s election ended in

stalemate. This time, many Is-

raelis are wondering whether it

will e nd with Prime Minister Ben-

jamin Netanyahu out of office for

the first time in a decade.

Netanyahu, who fell far short of

the decisive victory for which he

SEE ISRAEL ON A

BY CAROL D. LEONNIG

AND TOM HAMBURGER

When the National Rifle Asso-

ciation needed more legal fire-

power in New York state last year,

the gun rights group brought

aboard an unlikely lawyer: a Dem-

ocrat who had no experience in

Second Amendment litigation.

By this spring, William Brewer

III had emerged as a top counsel-

or to NRA chief executive Wayne

LaPierre and a victor — for now, at

least — in a civil war that he

helped set in motion and that is

ripping apart the powerful gun

lobby.

The ugly public fight has led to

an exodus of high-level officials

and warring accusations of finan-

cial impropriety. At the center of

the fray is Brewer, a brash lawyer

who has drawn ethics complaints

and has a reputation for escalating

disputes into pricey legal battles.

Several NRA veterans accuse

Brewer of instigating an almost

Shakespearean feud to protect his

bottom line and growing influ-

ence. According to internal board

correspondence, his small law

firm billed $24 million in fees in

13 months — leading top NRA

board members to demand early

this year that the organization

stop paying until they could re-

view the bills.

But LaPierre sided with Brew-

SEE LAWYER ON A

BY KARIN BRULLIARD

IN ELKO COUNTY, NEV.

W

ild horses may be sym-

bols of the wide-open

American West, but J. J.

Goicoechea watched them warily.

Under a bright desert sky, about

20 mustangs munched on the

crested wheatgrass meant for the

Angus cattle he grazes here on

public land.

“You’ve got to look up to them.

They’re tough,” t he fourth-genera-

tion rancher said, leaning against

his dusty r ed truck. “But if we turn

a blind eye, in five years there will

be 100 horses here, and it won’t

look as good.”

Goicoechea has long been on

one side of the battle over wild

horses and burros, an issue so

contentious that Congress, ani-

mal advocates, conservationists,

ranchers and the Bureau of Land

Management have long been in a

stalemate. Everyone agrees the

situation is untenable: The gov-

ernment says the number of

equines roaming public land is

SEE HORSES ON A

U.S. icon, or pest of the West? Plan is struck

to limit herds, but some groups call it a betrayal.

How a brash lawyer helped fuel civil war in NRA

Pompeo

calls oil

strike ‘act

of war’

Fed’s slight

interest rate

cut prompts

Trump’s ire

In dead heat,

Israel’s top

parties vie

for coalition

LaPierre’s top counselor

aided in ouster of those

who criticized legal fees

William

Brewer III’s

law firm billed

the gun group

$24 million

in fees in

13 months.

CAROLYN VAN HOUTEN/THE WASHINGTON POST

Formerly wild horses that have been adopted wait to be picked up in July at the Bureau of Land

Management’s National Wild Horse and Burro Center at Palomino Valley, in Reno, Nev.

IRAN REJECTS BLAME,

ISSUES THREATS

Trump orders sanctions

stepped up after attack

JAHI CHIKWENDIU/THE WASHINGTON POST

Clarence Smoyer, 96, right, is greeted by a friend from his wartime battalion. Smoyer was awarded the Bronze Star

at the National World War II Memorial on Wednesday, nearly 75 years after he and his fellow crewmen destroyed

a German tank in a dramatic battle on March 6, 1945, that was immortalized on film. Story, B

Belated honors for U.S. tank crew

In U.S.: Trump appears to distance

himself from Netanyahu. A

New adviser: Bolton’s successor
hailed for freeing U.S. captives. A

BY GREG MILLER,

ELLEN NAKASHIMA

AND SHANE HARRIS

The whistleblower complaint
that has triggered a tense show-
down between the U.S. intelligence
community and Congress involves
President Trump’s communica-
tions with a foreign leader, accord-
ing to two former U.S. officials fa-
miliar with the matter.
Trump’s interaction with the
foreign leader included a “prom-
ise” t hat was regarded as so trou-
bling that it prompted an official in
the U.S. intelligence community to
file a formal whistleblower com-
plaint with the inspector general
for the intelligence community,
said the former officials, speaking
on the condition of anonymity be-
cause they were not authorized to
discuss the matter publicly.
It was not immediately clear
which foreign leader Trump was
speaking with or what he pledged
to deliver, but his direct involve-
ment in the matter has not been
previously disclosed. It raises new
questions about the president’s
handling of sensitive information
and may further strain his rela-
tionship with U.S. spy agencies.
One former official said the com-
munication was a phone call.
The White House declined to
comment late Wednesday night.
The Office of the Director of Na-
SEE COMPLAINT ON A

Trump is

subject of

intelligence

complaint

President’s ‘promise’ to

foreign leader was cited,

former officials say

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