The Wall Street Journal - 16.08.2019

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. **** Friday, August 16, 2019 |A

U.S. NEWS

Mr. Craig is on trial on one

count related to false state-

ments prosecutors say he made

to the Justice Department com-

ponent that enforces the For-

eign Agents Registration Act.

The charges against Mr.

Craig grew out of special coun-

sel Robert Mueller’s investiga-

tion of President Trump’s for-

mer 2016 campaign chairman,

Paul Manafort, and his years of

work for the pro-Russia regime

in power in Kiev. Mr. Manafort

and his associate Richard

Gates pleaded guilty to crimes

related to their Ukraine work.

At issue is work Mr. Craig

performed for Ukraine while

he was at the law firm Skad-

den, Arps, Slate, Meagher &

Flom LLP in 2012. Skadden

Arps was hired by the pro-

Russian regime that was then

in power in Ukraine to evalu-

ate the fairness of the corrup-

tion trial of former Ukrainian

Prime Minister Yulia Tymosh-

enko. The firm ultimately con-

cluded that Ms. Tymoshenko’s

trial didn’t meet Western stan-

dards of justice.

Mr. Craig’s lawyers painted

a much different picture—por-

traying him as a diligent attor-

ney who spoke to the media

about his work on behalf of

Ukraine because he worried it

was being misrepresented by

Kiev’s hired U.S. public-rela-

tions agents. They dismissed

suggestions he was part of a

public-relations campaign on

Ukraine’s behalf and rejected

claims that he lied to the U.S.

government to cover it up.

“The evidence will show

that Gregory Craig is entirely

innocent,” said Bill Taylor, a

defense attorney for Mr. Craig.

Mr. Craig, 74 years old,

served in senior legal roles for

two Democratic presidents, Bill

Clinton and Barack Obama. But

it is his work in 2012, after he

left the Obama White House,

that has come under scrutiny.

The trial pits the longtime

public servant determined to

clear his name against a Justice

Department bent on more ag-

gressively enforcing laws gov-

erning work done by Ameri-

cans for foreign governments.

WASHINGTON—The trial of

President Obama’s former

White House counsel began on

Thursday, promising to shed

new light on the inner work-

ings of Washington lawyers,

public relations firms and

journalists.

In opening statements,

prosecutors accused Gregory

Craig—a veteran Democratic

attorney who served in two

administrations—of mislead-

ing a unit of the Justice De-

partment responsible for en-

forcing the laws about foreign

government representation.

“Gregory B. Craig had a

choice. He could tell the truth

and be forthcoming when the

Department of Justice asked

him questions about his work

for a foreign government, or

he could lie and conceal,” said

Molly Gaston, a federal prose-

cutor who delivered the gov-

ernment’s opening statement.

“We are here today because

the defendant chose to lie and

conceal,” Ms. Gaston said.

BYBYRONTAU

Democratic Lawyer on Trial

Over Work Tied to Ukraine

“When it happened, I was

in shock,” Mr. Pawlik said.

“The baby was calm as a cu-

cumber, more calm than I

was.” Emergency medical ser-

vices workers also rushed to

the firehouse and escorted the

girl to a nearby hospital. State

child services later placed the

girl with adoptive parents.

Another mother surren-

dered a baby boy at the fire-

house in April 2018. Unlike in

the first case, the mother hov-

ered near the station as a

Coolspring volunteer plucked

the baby out within a minute.

She later came forward to par-

ticipate in the adoption pro-

cess, according to Mr. Pawlik.

The boxes are part of a

broader “safe haven” move-

ment championed by conser-

vative activists trying to dis-

courage abortions and

infanticide. Stories of mothers

abandoning babies in dump-

sters, alleys, public toilets or

the woods fueled support for

laws giving immunity to those

who relinquish healthy infants

to emergency personnel in-

stead of going through adop-

tion channels. Starting with

Texas in 1999, all 50 states

have enacted safe-haven laws.

Baby boxes guarantee more

privacy, said Monica Kelsey, a

46-year-old volunteer medic

and firefighter from Wood-

burn, Ind., who runs a non-

profit that manufactures and

Inside the Device

Baby boxes are electronically monitored and equipped

to notify 911 as soon as the outer door is open.

Parent opens the

door to the baby box

and a silent alarm is

triggered and a call

goes to dispatch.

Parent places baby in

bassinet. A sensor

located on the inside

of the box triggers a

second call to dispatch.

Parent can push a

button to trigger

another call to 911

before closing the

exterior door, which

then automatically

locks. Emergency

personnel usually

arrive within five

minutes.

The box is temperature

controlled between 71

and 82 degrees, and air

holes on the inside

panel keep it ventilated.

How it works

Source: Safe Haven Baby Boxes

Research: Jacob Gershman

Alberto Cervantes/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

promotes the device.

“These women want to re-

main anonymous, and in some

states they don’t get that,” Ms.

Kelsey said.

The vented and tempera-

ture-controlled devices are

equipped with sensors that

automatically alert emergency

personnel—stationed at the

building or minutes away by

car—when the door is opened

and when anything is depos-

ited inside. Anxious mothers

can also push a button to trig-

ger a 911 call.

Michigan lawmakers voted

to authorize the boxes last

year, but then-Gov. Rick Snyder,

a Republican, vetoed the bill.

“I do not believe it is ap-

propriate to allow for parents

to surrender a baby by simply

depositing the baby into a de-

vice,” wrote Mr. Snyder in his

veto message from December.

Louisiana legislators are

also split.

“I hate to say it, but there

are some mothers who will

drop the child in the trash if

they don’t have an anonymous

way,” said Rep. Katrina R.

Jackson at a health committee

hearing this spring.

But a top state child-wel-

fare official urged lawmakers

to hold off, saying more

needed to be known about the

device’s specifications and

alarm functions.

Ms. Kelsey’s nonprofit

group charges around $10,

to install and promote a box

with billboard advertising.

Charities such as Knights of

Columbus have typically

picked up all of the costs.

Several Arizona hospitals

also have “baby drawers” with

slots opening into emergency

rooms or patient-care areas

where personnel are usually

present. Heather Burner, the

Arizona-based executive direc-

tor of the National Safe Haven

Alliance, estimates that

around three babies have been

placed in them in the past five

years and that nationwide,

about 4,000 babies have been

surrendered legally under

safe-haven laws since 1999.

For volunteer firefighters in

Coolspring, Ind., a buzzing

pager could mean a house fire,

a trapped elevator, a highway

wreckage—or a baby in a box.

The township in northern

IndianaisthesiteofaSafe

Haven Baby Box, an incubator-

like device that can be found

at a growing number of fire-

houses and hospitals around

the country.

Installed on an exterior

wall, the devices function like

a return slot at a library. An

anguished mother unwilling or

unable to care for a newborn

can open the door from the

outside and deposit a baby into

the device, triggering a silent

alarm and locking when closed.

In the past four years, Indi-

ana, Arkansas, Ohio and Penn-

sylvania have passed laws al-

lowing parents to surrender

their children without needing

to interact with any medical or

emergency personnel, face-to-

face or otherwise.

Indiana is now home to

close to a dozen of the boxes,

including one just unveiled at

a firehouse in the northern

lakeside town of Syracuse.

Three hospitals in northwest-

ern Ohio have introduced the

boxes in the past few months.

They are also coming to Ar-

kansas, which just passed a

law authorizing their use, and

a similar measure is pending

in Louisiana. With more cities

and towns planning to add

them, the total number of

baby-box sites in the U.S. could

reach two dozen by year’s end.

So far, a total of two moth-

ers have used them, according

to baby-box advocates—both

times in Coolspring.

Mick Pawlik, the township’s

fire chief, found the first child

in November 2017. It was late

at night when he got an alert

on his pager. At home a few

minutes away, he raced in his

pickup truck to the station,

opened the box and discovered

a little girl wrapped in an old

sweatshirt, her umbilical cord

still attached.

BYJACOBGERSHMAN

Boxes Provide Babies Safe Refuge

Lt. Chuck Kohler, of the Coolspring, Ind., fire department, demonstrating how to use a baby box, where parents can surrender a newborn.

JON GARD/THE NEWS DISPATCH/ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON—President

Trump made his name on the

world’s most famous island.

Now he wants to buy the

world’s biggest.

The idea of the U.S. pur-

chasing Greenland has cap-

tured the former real-estate

developer’s imagination, ac-

cording to people familiar

with the discussion, who said

Mr. Trump has, with varying

degrees of seriousness, repeat-

edly expressed interest in buy-

ing the ice-covered autono-

mous Danish territory.

In meetings, dinners and

conversations, Mr. Trump has

asked advisers whether the

U.S. can acquire Greenland and,

according to two of the people,

has asked his White House

counsel to look into the idea.

Some of his advisers have

supported the concept, saying

it would be a good economic

play, two of the people said,

while others dismissed it as a

fleeting fascination. It is also

unclear how the U.S. would go

about acquiring Greenland

even if the effort were serious.

With a population of about

56,000, Greenland is a self-rul-

ing part of the Kingdom of

Denmark, and while its gov-

ernment decides on most do-

mestic matters, foreign and

security policy is handled by

Copenhagen.

The White House and State

Department didn’t respond to

a request for comment. Offi-

cials with Denmark’s Royal

House and the Danish embassy

in Washington didn’t respond

to requests for comment, nor

did officials with Greenland’s

office in Washington and

Greenland’s prime minister’s

office.

U.S. officials view Green-

land as important to American

national-security interests. A

treaty between Denmark and

the U.S. gives the U.S. military

virtually unlimited rights in

Greenland at America’s Thule

Air Base. Located 750 miles

north of the Arctic Circle, it

includes a radar station that is

part of a U.S. ballistic missile

warning system.

The U.S. has sought to de-

rail Chinese efforts to gain an

economic foothold in Green-

land. The Pentagon worked

successfully in 2018 to block

China from financing three

airports on the island.

People outside the White

House have described purchas-

ing Greenland as an Alaska-

type acquisition for Mr.

Trump’s legacy, advisers said.

The few current and former

White House officials who had

heard of the notion, described

it with a mix of anticipation

and apprehension because it

remains unknown how far the

president might push the idea.

It generated a cascade of ques-

tions among his advisers, such

as whether the U.S. could use

Greenland to establish a stron-

ger military presence in the

Arctic.

Greenland relies on $

million of subsidies from Den-

mark annually, which make up

about 60% of its annual bud-

get, according to U.S. and Dan-

ish government statistics.

Greenland is culturally and

politically linked to Europe.

Following World War II, the

U.S. under President Harry

Truman developed a geopoliti-

cal interest in Greenland and

in 1946 offered to buy it from

Denmark for $100 million.

Denmark refused to sell.

At a dinner with associates

last spring, Mr. Trump said

someone had told him Den-

mark was having financial

trouble over its assistance to

Greenland, and suggested that

he should consider buying the

island, according to one of the

people. “What do you guys

think about that?” he asked

the room, the person said.

The person described the

question less as a serious in-

quiry than as a joke meant to

indicate “I’m so powerful I

could buy a country,” noting

that since Mr. Trump hadn’t

floated the idea at a campaign

rally yet, he probably wasn’t

seriously considering it.

The person believed the

president was interested in the

idea because of the island’s

natural resources and because

it would give him a legacy akin

to President Dwight Eisen-

hower’s admission of Alaska

intotheU.S.asastate.

Secretary of State Mike

Pompeo was scheduled to visit

Greenland in May with the aim

of discussing long-term peace

and sustainable economic de-

velopments, particularly since

“we’re concerned about activi-

ties of other nations, including

China, that do not share these

same commitments,” a senior

State Department official said

at the time. His trip was called

off because of escalating ten-

sions with Iran.

Kenneth Mortensen, a real-

estate agent in Nuuk, Green-

land’s capital, said Mr. Trump

might run into some trouble.

“You can never own land

here,” Mr. Mortensen said, as

all land is owned by the gov-

ernment. “In Greenland, you

get a right to use the land

where you want to build a

house, but you can’t buy.”

“Of course, buying Green-

land is a different issue alto-

gether,” he added.

ByVivian Salama,

Rebecca Ballhaus,

Andrew Restucciaand

Michael C. Bender

Trump Eyes

U.S. Buying

Greenland

The president has

floated the idea with

varying degrees of

seriousness.

Tests Find Dayton Gunman Was on Drugs

Connor Betts had cocaine, al-

cohol and an antianxiety drug in

his system when he opened fire

on a crowded street in Dayton,

Ohio, in the early hours of Aug.

4, killing nine people, including

his own sister, the Montgomery

County coroner said.

A “one-hit” pipe and plastic

bag found on Betts also con-

tained cocaine, Dr. Kent Harsh-

barger said at a Thursday news

conference on his initial autopsy

findings. Betts, 24 years old, suf-

fered gunshot wounds to his

torso and upper and lower ex-

tremities, he said.

All nine victims had gunshot

wounds from Betts’s AR15-style

pistol, but Dr. Harshbarger said

two victims also were hit by police

fire. These shots were received af-

ter they already had been fatally

shot by Betts, the coroner said.

“It is a dynamic and chaotic

environment,” Police Chief Rich-

ard Biehl said, adding that if the

officers hadn’t opened fire many

more people would have died.

Betts was shot by police officers.

His motive is still unknown.

A memorial, above, in Dayton

honors the victims.

Authorities in El Paso, Texas,

also released more details Thurs-

day about the deadly mass shoot-

ing there, which took place barely

13 hours before Betts began

shooting. El Paso police released a

photo of a man they are hoping

to speak with because of his “he-

roic” actions the day a gunman

killed 22 people in a Walmart.

“Our only concern is to get an

account of that day,” a police

spokesman said. “Without ques-

tion he did help save lives.”

—Talal Ansari

ERNEST COLEMAN/ZUMA PRESS

For personal,