of mayoral race in revised count margins tighten

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PHOTOGRAPH BY CARLOS SOYOS AND ADAM FERGUSON

Even as the Biden administration faces a political challenge resulting from the number ofmigrants at the southwest border, those who are there are hoping for a lucky break. A Times

photographer, Adam Ferguson, asked some of them to capture a moment in their journeythrough self-portraits. Above, Carlos Soyos, 34, and his son, Enderson, 8. Page A7.

Showing Migrants Through Their Own Lens

A day after New York City’sBoard of Elections sowed confu-sion in the Democratic mayoralprimary by releasing new talliesand then retracting them, it issueda new preliminary tally of votessuggesting that the race betweenEric Adams, the primary nightleader, and his two closest rivalshad tightened significantly.

According to Wednesday’s non-binding tally, Mr. Adams ledKathryn Garcia by just 14,755votes, a margin of around two per-centage points, in the final round.Maya Wiley, who came in secondplace in the initial vote count,barely trailed Ms. Garcia after thepreliminary elimination roundswere completed: Fewer than 350votes separated the two.

But in reality, all of those candi-dates remain in contention, andthose numbers could be scram-

bled again as the city’s Board ofElections tabulates ranked-choiceoutcomes that will includeroughly 125,000 Democratic ab-sentee ballots, with a fuller resultnot expected until mid-July.

While campaign officials andsome New Yorkers were en-grossed in the emerging results,the count was nearly overshad-owed by the vote-tallying debaclethat drew national attention andstoked concerns about whethervoters would have faith in thecity’s electoral process.

The fiasco stemmed from anegregious error by the Board ofElections: Roughly 135,000 sam-ple ballots, used to test the city’snew ranked-choice system, hadbeen mistakenly counted. Theboard was forced to retract the re-sults from a tabulation of ranked-choice preferences, just hours af-ter it had published them on Tues-day.

The board on Wednesday even-tually released the results of a sec-ond tally of ranked-choice prefer-ences among Democrats who

MARGINS TIGHTENIN REVISED COUNTOF MAYORAL RACE

ADAMS HOLDS SLIM LEAD

Appeals for Patience andReform After Fiasco

in New York City

By KATIE GLUECK

Continued on Page A24

Absentee ballots being talliedin Queens on Wednesday.

DAVE SANDERS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

A grand jury in Manhattan hasindicted Donald J. Trump’s familybusiness, the Trump Organiza-tion, and one of its top executivesin connection with a tax investiga-tion into fringe benefits handedout at the company, people famil-iar with the matter said onWednesday.

The specific charges against thecompany and its chief financial of-ficer, Allen H. Weisselberg, werenot immediately clear. The indict-ment was expected to be unsealedThursday afternoon after Mr.Weisselberg and lawyers for theTrump Organization appear incourt.

But prosecutors in the Manhat-tan district attorney’s office havebeen examining bonuses and lux-ury perks that Mr. Weisselberg re-ceived — including an apartmentin Manhattan, leased Mercedes-Benz cars and private-school tu-ition for at least one of his grand-children — and whether taxesshould have been paid on thosebenefits.

The indictment is a major devel-opment in the investigation led bythe district attorney, Cyrus R.Vance, Jr., who has been conduct-ing a sweeping inquiry into Mr.Trump and his business dealingsalong with the New York State at-torney general, Letitia James.

The charges will deal a blow toMr. Trump, who has denouncedthe investigation as political per-secution. Although he could rallysupporters around the idea thathe is the victim of what he hascalled a “witch hunt,” defendinghis company on criminal chargescould be an expensive distractionas he considers another presiden-tial run.

The indictment will also ampli-fy the pressure that prosecutorshave placed on Mr. Weisselbergfor months to turn on Mr. Trumpand cooperate with their continu-ing investigation. In nearly a half-century of service to Mr. Trump’sfamily businesses, Mr. Weissel-berg, 73, has survived — andthrived — by anticipating and car-rying out his boss’s dictates in azealous mission to protect the bot-tom line.

Interviews with 18 current andformer associates of Mr. Weissel-berg, as well as a review of legalfilings, financial records and otherdocuments, paint a portrait of aman whose unflinching devotionto Mr. Trump will now be put to thetest.

“Allen is a soldier,” said JohnBurke, a former Trump executivewho worked with Mr. Weisselbergin the early 1990s. “Allen was goodat doing what Donald wanted himto do.”

A bookkeeper by training whogrew up in Brooklyn, Mr. Weissel-berg rose steadily within theTrump Organization to becomeperhaps the former president’smost trusted business adviser.Over decades, Mr. Weisselberg’spersonal and family life becameincreasingly fused with the com-pany and with Mr. Trump, who is

Panel IndictsTop Executive

Under Trump

Family Company Also Said to Be Charged

This article is by Michael Roth-feld, Jonah E. Bromwich and BenProtess.

Continued on Page A19

Bill Cosby was released fromprison Wednesday after the Penn-sylvania Supreme Court over-turned his 2018 conviction for sex-ual assault, a dramatic reversal inone of the first high-profile crimi-nal trials of the #MeToo era.

The court’s decision seemedlikely to end the Pennsylvaniacase, legal experts said, and whilemore than 50 women across thenation have accused Mr. Cosby ofsexual assault and misconduct,statutes of limitations in theircases makes further prosecutionsunlikely.

Mr. Cosby had served threeyears of a three- to 10-year sen-tence at a maximum-securityprison outside Philadelphia whenthe court ruled that a “non-pros-ecution agreement” with a previ-ous prosecutor meant that Mr.Cosby should not have beencharged in the case.

Mr. Cosby, 83, returned to hishome in suburban PhiladelphiaWednesday afternoon where,looking frail and walking slowly,he was helped inside by his lawyerand a spokesman. He flashed a“V” sign as he reached his frontdoor.

The court’s decision overturnedthe first major criminal convictionof the #MeToo era, which camesoon after allegations of sexual as-sault had been made against thepowerful Hollywood producerHarvey Weinstein. The accusa-tions and eventual conviction ofMr. Cosby stunned the nation,painting a disturbing portrait sug-gesting that a man who hadbrightened America’s livingrooms as a beloved father figurehad been a sexual predator.

The case against Mr. Cosby be-gan with his arrest in 2015 oncharges that he had drugged andsexually assaulted a woman at hishome in the Philadelphia suburbs11 years earlier. In April 2018, thejury convicted Mr. Cosby of threecounts of aggravated indecent as-sault against Andrea Constand, towhom Mr. Cosby had been a men-tor and who was at the time a Tem-ple University employee.

Ms. Constand had praised theguilty verdict at the time, saying,“Truth prevails,” and the NationalOrganization for Women called it“a notice to sexual predators ev-erywhere.” But Mr. Cosby’s law-yers, who had said at the time thatallegations against Mr. Weinsteinwould make it difficult for them toreceive a fair trial, later suggestedin an appeal that the outcome hadbeen influenced by what they de-scribed as a period of “publicpanic.”

In a statement issued with herlawyers, Ms. Constand saidWednesday that the court’s rulingwas “not only disappointing but ofconcern in that it may discouragethose who seek justice for sexualassault in the criminal justice sys-tem from reporting or participat-ing in the prosecution of the as-sailant or may force a victim tochoose between filing either acriminal or civil action.”

In their 79-page opinion, the

Cosby Is FreedAfter ReversalBy State Court

Verdict Thrown Out inMajor #MeToo Case

By GRAHAM BOWLEY and JULIA JACOBS

Continued on Page A18

For years before the partial col-lapse of the Champlain TowersSouth complex near Miami, thecondo board wrestled with how tocome up with the $15 millionneeded to fix the building’s dilapi-dated roof, a poorly designed pooldeck and crumbling support col-umns.

The problem: The homeown-

ers’ association had just $800,000in reserves, and getting the workdone meant asking residents toshoulder huge special assess-ments ranging from $80,000 to$200,000 on each home. No onewas eager to pay.

“The dirtiest words in the com-munity-association industry are‘special assessment,’” Donna Di-Maggio Berger, a lawyer for theboard, said of the effort to get 135homeowners — of varying meansand of multiple nationalities — toagree on a plan to do the repairs.

During the prolonged tumultover the needed renovations, sev-eral members of the board hadquit in frustration.

As Condo Boards Squabble, Disaster May LoomBy MIKE BAKER and

KIMIKO de FREYTAS-TAMURAFixes Often Delayed by

Fights Over Money

Continued on Page A17

BALTIMORE — When Targetannounced that it was opening astore in Mondawmin, a predomi-nantly Black neighborhood in thiscity struggling with crime andpoverty, it seemed like a ticket to aturnaround.

And from the start, it was apractical success and a point ofcommunity pride. The store,which opened in 2008, carried gro-

ceries, operated a pharmacy andhad a Starbucks cafe, the only onein this part of Baltimore’s westside.

People came from across thecity to shop there, helping to soft-en the Mondawmin area’s reputa-

tion for crime and the looting thatfollowed protests over the 2015death of Freddie Gray, who was fa-tally injured while in city policecustody. As an employer, Targetseemed to cater to the communi-ty’s needs, making a point of hir-ing Black men and providing anoffice in the store for a socialworker to support the staff. ElijahCummings, the congressmanfrom Baltimore, was known to

Store’s Closing Still Wounds Black CommunityBy MICHAEL CORKERY In Baltimore, a Failed

Sign of Revitalization

Continued on Page A15

Donald H. Rumsfeld, the secre-tary of defense for PresidentsGerald R. Ford and George W.Bush, who presided over Ameri-ca’s Cold War strategies in the1970s and, in the new world of ter-rorism decades later, the wars inAfghanistan and Iraq, died onTuesday at his home in Taos, N.M.He was 88.

The cause was multiple myelo-ma, said Keith Urbahn, a spokes-man for the family.

Encores are hardly rare inWashington, but Mr. Rumsfeldhad the distinction of being theonly defense chief to serve twononconsecutive terms: 1975 to1977 under President Ford, and2001 to 2006 under PresidentBush. He also was the youngest,at 43, and the oldest, at 74, to holdthe post — first in an era of Soviet-American nuclear perils, then inan age of subtler menace by ter-rorists and rogue states.

A staunch ally of former VicePresident Dick Cheney, who hadbeen his protégé and friend foryears, Mr. Rumsfeld was a com-bative infighter who seemed torelish conflicts as he challenged

cabinet rivals, members of Con-gress and military orthodoxies.And he was widely regarded in hissecond tour as the most powerfuldefense secretary since Robert S.McNamara during the VietnamWar.

Like his counterpart of longago, Mr. Rumsfeld in Iraq waged acostly and divisive war that ulti-mately destroyed his political lifeand outlived his tenure by manyyears. But unlike McNamara, who

offered mea culpas in a 2003 docu-mentary, “The Fog of War,” Mr.Rumsfeld acknowledged no seri-ous failings and warned in afarewell valedictory at the Penta-gon that quitting Iraq would be aterrible mistake, even though thewar, the country learned, hadbeen based on a false premise —that Saddam Hussein, the Iraqileader, had been harboring weap-ons of mass destruction.

Defiant Architect of Tactics in Cold War and IraqBy ROBERT D. McFADDEN

Donald H. Rumsfeld in 2006. He was defense secretary twice.STEPHEN CROWLEY/THE NEW YORK TIMES

DONALD H. RUMSFELD, 1932-2021

Continued on Page A20

Street performances celebrated theChocolate Factory Theater as it movedto a new building in Queens. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-6

Moving in StyleIn Japan, rigid gender norms limit theopportunities for young athletes likeKurumi Mochizuki, above. PAGE A4

INTERNATIONAL A4-13

Girls Face Barriers to Goals

Vanessa Friedman takes a look atchanges in leadership at some of theworld’s top fashion magazines. PAGE D1

THURSDAY STYLES D1-6

A New Guard of EditorsA professor in Hong Kong who pushedhis students to participate in publicaffairs now worries that such idealismcould cost them their freedom. PAGE B1

BUSINESS B1-6

The Perils of ProtestWith a record heat wave in the West anddrought-fueled wildfires, the presidentplans to extend the season for firefight-ers and raise their pay. PAGE A21

NATIONAL A14-21, 24

Biden Pledges Firefighting Aid

Questions surrounded Dan Schneider’sexit from Nickelodeon, but he now hasseveral projects in the works. PAGE C1

Hitmaker Plans Return to TVIn Europe, Asia and Africa, nations thathoped they had seen the worst of Covidare being battered again. PAGE A6

Variants Fuel Pandemic Surges

New York City adopted a $99 billionplan that increases spending on thepolice, restores service cuts and invests$100 for each kindergartner. PAGE A19

De Blasio’s ‘Recovery Budget’

Allison Mack, an actress known for herrole in “Smallville,” was sentenced tothree years. She had lured sexual part-ners for the group’s leader. PAGE A14

Prison for Nxivm Figure

The N.B.A. playoffs have been ravagedby injuries, and Milwaukee and Atlantamay be without their top stars. PAGE B7

Forced Off the Biggest Stage

Relaxed N.C.A.A. policies and new statelaws have brought a seismic shift to thecampus landscape. PAGE B9

SPORTSTHURSDAY B7-10, 12

It’s Payday for College Athletes

Gail Collins PAGE A23

OPINION A22-23

Determining the identity of an enig-matic poster called rg_bunny1 hascaptivated the scrolling classes. PAGE D1

An Instagram Whodunit

TURMOIL The Board of Elections,known for its mishaps, is nowunder intense scrutiny. PAGE A24

Late Edition

VOL. CLXX . . . . No. 59,106 © 2021 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, THURSDAY, JULY 1, 2021

Today, some sunshinne, thunder-storms, not as hot, high 84. Tonight,rain, thunderstorms, low 69. Tomor-row, cooler, showers, thunderstorm,high 75. Weather map, Page B12.

$3.00