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GÜIRIA, Venezuela — The hostof a popular radio show, “The Peo-ple’s Combat,” had always dili-gently praised Venezuela’s gov-erning Socialist Party, even as mil-lions sank into penury under itsrule. But when acute gasolineshortages paralyzed his remote

fishing town this summer, hestrayed from the party line.

On his show, the host, lifelongSocialist José Carmelo Bislick, ac-cused local party chiefs of si-phoning fuel, leaving most peoplequeuing for days outside emptygasoline stations.

Just weeks later, on Aug. 17, fourmasked, armed men burst into Mr.Bislick’s house and told him hehad “run the red light,” beforebeating him in front of his family

and hauling him away into thenight. He was found dead withgunshot wounds hours later,dressed in his favorite Che Gueva-ra T-shirt.

Those responsible for Mr. Bis-

lick’s death remain at large in thetown of 30,000, where everyoneknew of him, and of his lifelongdedication to Venezuela’s Socialistrevolution. The Socialist mayornever spoke of the crime or visitedthe family, who said the killing hadbeen politically motivated.

“Is denouncing wrongdoing sowicked that it should cost the lifeof a man who only wanted socialwell-being?” asked Mr. Bislick’s

Maduro Cracks Down on the Leftists Who Once Revered HimThis article is by Isayen Herrera,

Anatoly Kurmanaev, Tibisay Rome-ro and Sheyla Urdaneta.

Consolidating Power inRestive Venezuela

Continued on Page A14

DARK SKIES The Thanksgivingrebound airlines are enjoyingmay be short-lived. PAGE B1

Two separate New York Statefraud investigations into Presi-dent Trump and his businesses,one criminal and one civil, haveexpanded to include tax write-offson millions of dollars in consultingfees, some of which appear tohave gone to Ivanka Trump, ac-cording to people with knowledgeof the matter.

The inquiries — a criminal in-vestigation by the Manhattan dis-trict attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr.,and a civil one by the state attor-ney general, Letitia James — arebeing conducted independently.But both offices issued subpoenasto the Trump Organization in re-cent weeks for records related tothe fees, the people said.

The subpoenas were the lateststeps in the two investigations ofthe Trump Organization, and un-derscore the legal challengesawaiting the president when he

leaves office in January. There isno indication that his daughter is afocus of either inquiry, which theTrump Organization has deridedas politically motivated.

The development follows a re-cent New York Times examina-tion of more than two decades ofMr. Trump’s tax records, whichfound that he had paid little or nofederal income taxes in mostyears, largely because of hischronic business losses.

Among the revelations was thatMr. Trump reduced his taxable in-come by deducting about $26 mil-lion in fees to unidentified consult-ants as a business expense on nu-merous projects between 2010and 2018.

Some of those fees appear tohave been paid to Ms. Trump, TheTimes found. On a 2017 disclosureshe filed when joining the WhiteHouse as a presidential adviser,she reported receiving paymentsfrom a consulting company she

New York Fraud InvestigationsExpand to Trump Tax Write-OffsThis article is by Danny Hakim,

Mike McIntire, William K. Rash-baum and Ben Protess.

Continued on Page A19

WASHINGTON — PresidentTrump’s attempts to overturn the2020 election are unprecedentedin American history and an evenmore audacious use of brute

political force togain the WhiteHouse than whenCongress gave

Rutherford B. Hayes the presi-dency during Reconstruction.

Mr. Trump’s chances of suc-ceeding are somewhere betweenremote and impossible, and asign of his desperation afterPresident-elect Joseph R. BidenJr. won by nearly six millionpopular votes and counting, aswell as a clear Electoral Collegemargin. Yet the fact that Mr.Trump is even trying has set offwidespread alarms, not least inMr. Biden’s camp.

“I’m confident he knows hehasn’t won,” Mr. Biden said at anews conference in Wilmington,Del., on Thursday, before adding,“It’s just outrageous what he’sdoing.” Although Mr. Biden dis-missed Mr. Trump’s behavior asembarrassing, he acknowledgedthat “incredibly damaging mes-sages are being sent to the restof the world about how democra-cy functions.”

Mr. Trump has only weeks tomake his last-ditch effort work:Most of the states he needs tostrip Mr. Biden of votes arescheduled to certify their elec-tors by the beginning of nextweek. The electors cast theirballots on Dec. 14, and Congressopens them in a joint session onJan. 6.

Even if Mr. Trump somehowpulled it off, there are othersafeguards in place to face thechallenge, assuming people inpower do not simply bend to thepresident’s will.

The first test will be Michigan,where Mr. Trump is trying to getthe State Legislature to overturnMr. Biden’s 157,000-vote marginof victory. He has taken the ex-traordinary step of inviting adelegation of state Republicanleaders to the White House,hoping to persuade them toignore the popular vote outcome.

“That’s not going to happen,”Mike Shirkey, the Republicanleader of the Michigan StateSenate, said on Tuesday. “We are

A Desperate Effort toForce the Election

in His Favor

By DAVID E. SANGER

NEWSANALYSIS

Continued on Page A18

President Trump on Thursdayaccelerated his efforts to interferein the nation’s electoral process,taking the extraordinary step ofreaching out directly to Republi-can state legislators from Michi-gan and inviting them to the WhiteHouse on Friday for discussionsas the state prepares to certifyPresident-elect Joseph R. BidenJr. the winner there.

For Mr. Trump and his Republi-can allies, Michigan has becomethe prime target in their campaignto subvert the will of voters back-ing Mr. Biden in the recent elec-tion. Mr. Trump called at least oneG.O.P. elections official in the De-troit area this week after shevoted to certify Mr. Biden’s over-whelming victory there, and he isnow set to meet with legislatorsahead of Michigan’s deadline onMonday to certify the results.

The president has also asked

aides what Republican officials hecould call in other battlegroundstates in his effort to prevent thecertification of results that wouldformalize his loss to Mr. Biden,several advisers said. Trump al-lies appear to be pursuing a highlydubious legal theory that if the re-sults are not certified, Republicanlegislatures could intervene andappoint pro-Trump electors instates Mr. Biden won who wouldsupport the president when theElectoral College meets on Dec.14.

The Republican effort to undothe popular vote is all but certain

TRUMP TARGETING MICHIGAN IN PLOY

TO SUBVERT VOTEInvites State Leaders to the White House

in a Brazen Step

This article is by Maggie Ha-berman, Jim Rutenberg, Nick Cora-saniti and Reid J. Epstein.

President Trump’s loss in Geor-gia was reaffirmed. Page A16.

STEFANI REYNOLDS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A17

The deal joins two digital media giantsthat have lost momentum and is part ofa larger arrangement between Buzz-Feed and Verizon Media to share con-tent across their platforms. PAGE B1

BUSINESS B1-7

BuzzFeed to Acquire HuffPost

Events of 2020 are woven into DerekFordjour’s work at the Petzel Gallery.Above, “Straight Four Swing.” PAGE C1

WEEKEND ARTS C1-14

Art From a Year of Black GriefAt least 16 people were killed in unrestafter two presidential candidates werearrested while campaigning. PAGE A10

INTERNATIONAL A10-14

Deadly Protests in Uganda

A Showtime documentary of John Belu-shi presents a complex, sensitive soulbeyond the stunts and parties. PAGE C3

The Man Inside the WhirlwindA Chinese county’s plan to ban dogwalking and kill the pets of rule-break-ing owners elicits outrage. PAGE A13

3 Strikes and the Dog Is Out

General Motors says it will increase itsinvestment and model offerings overthe next five years “to expedite thetransition to E.V.s.” PAGE B3

G.M. Chases Electric CarsNew York is banking on a variety ofless disruptive mandates, even as pub-lic health experts and other officialswarn that such measures may not beenough to contain the virus. PAGE A6

Full Shutdown May Be Ahead

The Games will go on, the leader of theInternational Olympic Committee says.How? They’re working on it. PAGE B8

SPORTSFRIDAY B8-10

The Olympic Spirit

David Brooks PAGE A27

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A26-27

STEPHANIE KEITH FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Vanisha Mallette, 12, reading at a Five Guys restaurant in downtown Brooklyn on Thursday. Shewas with her father, Donald, who said having to stay home from school was hard on her. Page A6.

A Tough Day 1

The 2020 Rockefeller Center Christmastree looked as scraggly as the year, butin its boughs, surprises waited. PAGE A21

How Gangly Are Thy Branches

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Matt Kauf-mann loved bringing real-worldissues into his classroom, but henever expected he would becomea lesson himself. The headlines,however, made it hard to avoid:“Kentucky High School Teacher ofthe Year Arrested,” blared the lo-cal news after he was detained onMay 31.

An English teacher at Marion C.Moore School at that time, Mr.Kaufmann was among more than800 people swept up by the policein Louisville during the manymonths of demonstrationsprompted by the police killings ofGeorge Floyd in Minneapolis andBreonna Taylor in Louisville.

Mr. Kaufmann and his fiancée,protest novices, joined a largedowntown crowd in late May, hesaid, when police officers began tobreak up the demonstration by fir-ing tear gas and charging from allsides. With a helicopter thumpingoverhead, he suddenly found him-self lined up on the ground withdozens of other protesters, thenhauled off to a crowded jail cell.

“I had never experienced any-thing like that before,” Mr. Kauf-mann, 41, said. “It was scary.”

Now, more than five months lat-er, as Mr. Kaufmann’s case andthose of thousands of others fi-nally land in courts across theUnited States, a vast majority ofcases against protesters are beingdismissed. Only cases involvingmore substantial charges likeproperty destruction or other vio-lence remain.

Prosecutors called the scale ofboth the mass arrests and massdismissals within a few shortmonths unrivaled, at least since

Most ChargesFrom Protests

Are DroppedBy NEIL MacFARQUHAR

Continued on Page A20

Faced with a seemingly unstop-pable surge in coronavirus infec-tions, officials at the Centers forDisease Control and Preventionon Thursday urged Americans toavoid travel for Thanksgiving andto celebrate only with members oftheir immediate households — amessage sharply at odds with aWhite House eager to downplaythe threat.

The plea, delivered at the firstC.D.C. news briefing in months,arrived as many Americans werepacking their bags for one of themost heavily traveled weeks ofthe year. It is the first time that theagency has warned people away

from traditional holiday celebra-tions.

“The safest way to celebrateThanksgiving this year is at homewith members of your household,”said Erin Sauber-Schatz, wholeads the agency’s community in-tervention and critical populationtask force. She urged Americansto reassess plans for the comingweek.

The C.D.C.’s warning runs

counter to messages from admin-istration officials, who have de-nounced concerns that Thanks-giving celebrations will speed thevirus’s spread.

“A lot of the guidelines you’reseeing are Orwellian,” KayleighMcEnany, the White House presssecretary, said on “Fox &Friends,” singling out a require-ment in Oregon that gatheringsnot exceed more than six people.

Members of the White Housecoronavirus task force did not

Plea to Americans: Stay Home on ThanksgivingBy RONI CARYN RABIN C.D.C.’s Warning Runs

Counter to MessagingFrom White House

Lining up at a drive-through testing site at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on Wednesday. California issued a new curfew Thursday.RINGO H.W. CHIU/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Continued on Page A8

Late Edition

VOL. CLXX . . . . No. 58,883 © 2020 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2020

The World Health Organization recom-mended against the use of remdesivir, adrug that generated interest as a treat-ment for Covid-19 and that was given toPresident Trump. PAGE A8

TRACKING AN OUTRBEAK A4-9

W.H.O. Rejects Antiviral DrugWith control of the Senate hanging inthe balance, campaign cash is floodinginto two runoffs in a state that justbarely turned blue this year. PAGE A15

NATIONAL A15-23

Wide-Open Wallets in Georgia

Today, mostly sunny, breezy, muchmilder, high 61. Tonight, mostlyclear, mild, low 48. Tomorrow, partlysunny, remaining mild during theday, high 61. Weather map, Page B11.

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