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The path to beating the corona-virus was clear, but Kelley Voll-mar had never felt so helpless.

As the top health official in Mis-souri’s Jefferson County, Ms. Voll-mar knew a mandate requiringpeople to wear masks could helpsave lives. She pressed the gover-nor’s office to issue a statewide or-der, and hospital leaders weremaking a similar push. Even theWhite House, at a time when Pres-ident Trump was sometimesmocking people who wore masks,was privately urging the Republi-can governor to impose a man-date.

Still, Gov. Mike Parson resisted,and in the suburbs of St. Louis,Ms. Vollmar found herself underattack. A member of the countyhealth board called her a liar. Thesheriff announced that he wouldnot enforce a local mandate. Afteranti-mask activists posted her ad-dress online, Ms. Vollmar in-stalled a security system at herhome.

“This past year, everything thatwe’ve done has been questioned,”said Ms. Vollmar, whose ownmother, 77, died from complica-tions of the coronavirus in Decem-ber. “It feels like the Lorax fromthe old Dr. Seuss story: I’m here tosave the trees, and nobody is lis-tening.”

For nearly the entire pandemic,political polarization and a rejec-tion of science have stymied theUnited States’ ability to controlthe coronavirus. That has beenclearest and most damaging at the

federal level, where Mr. Trumpclaimed that the virus would “dis-appear,” clashed with his top sci-entists and, in a pivotal failure, ab-dicated responsibility for a pan-demic that required a national ef-fort to defeat it, handing keydecisions over to states under theassumption that they would takeon the fight and get the countryback to business.

But governors and local offi-cials who were left in charge of thecrisis squandered the little mo-mentum the country had as theysidelined health experts, ignoredwarnings from their own advisersand, in some cases, stocked theiradvisory committees with morebusiness representatives thandoctors.

Nearly one year since the firstknown coronavirus case in theUnited States was announcednorth of Seattle on Jan. 21, 2020,the full extent of the nation’s fail-ures has come into clear view:

400,000 Deaths in a Year And Failure at Every Level

With No Unified Virus Plan, States BattledExperts, Lobbyists and the Public

This article is by Sarah Mervosh,Mike Baker, Patricia Mazzei andMark Walker.

Protesting lockdowns in Hunt-ington Beach, Calif., last May.

BRYAN DENTON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A6CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: OCTAVIO JONES FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES; BRYAN DENTON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES; CHANG W. LEE/THE NEW YORK TIMES; MADDIE McGARVEY FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Government buildings around the country were fortified and on high alert this weekend, and the number of pro-Trump demonstra-tors was small. Clockwise from top left: St. Paul, Minn.; Lansing, Mich.; the U.S. Capitol, in Washington; Columbus, Ohio. Page A19.

A Show of Strength and No-Show Protesters

Every morning, ValerieGilbert, a Harvard-educatedwriter and actress, wakes up inher Upper East Side apartment;feeds her dog, Milo, and her cats,

Marlena and Ce-leste; brews a cupof coffee; and sitsdown at her ovaldining room table.

Then, she opensher laptop and begins fightingthe global cabal.

Ms. Gilbert, 57, is a believer inQAnon, the pro-Trump conspir-acy theory. Like all QAnon faith-ful, she is convinced that theworld is run by a satanic groupof pedophiles that includes topDemocrats and Hollywood elites,and that President Trump hasspent years leading a top-secretmission to bring these evildoersto justice.

She unspools this web of false-hoods on her Facebook page,where she posts dozens of timesa day, often sharing links fromright-wing sites like Breitbartand The Epoch Times or QAnonmemes she has pulled off Twitter.On a recent day, her feed includ-ed a rant against Covid-19 lock-downs, a grainy meme accusingCongress of “high treason,” apost calling Lady Gaga a Sa-tanist and a claim that “covfefe,”a typo that Mr. Trump acciden-tally tweeted three years ago,was a coded intelligence mes-sage.

“I’m the meme queen,” Ms.Gilbert told me. “I won’t producethem, but I share a mean meme,and I’m kind of raw.”

These are confusing times forfollowers of QAnon, a derangedconspiracy theory birthed in thebowels of the internet. They weretold that Mr. Trump would bere-elected in a landslide, and that

Theory Buckles,But QAnon FanHangs On Tight

KEVINROOSE

THE SHIFT

Continued on Page A17

WASHINGTON — As Presi-dent Trump prepares to leave of-fice in days, a lucrative market forpardons is coming to a head, withsome of his allies collecting feesfrom wealthy felons or their asso-ciates to push the White House forclemency, according to docu-ments and interviews with morethan three dozen lobbyists andlawyers.

The brisk market for pardonsreflects the access peddling thathas defined Mr. Trump’s presiden-cy as well as his unorthodox ap-proach to exercising uncheckedpresidential clemency powers.Pardons and commutations areintended to show mercy to deserv-ing recipients, but Mr. Trump hasused many of them to reward per-sonal or political allies.

The pardon lobbying heated upas it became clear that Mr. Trumphad no recourse for challenginghis election defeat, lobbyists andlawyers say. One lobbyist, BrettTolman, a former federal prosecu-tor who has been advising theWhite House on pardons and com-mutations, has monetized hisclemency work, collecting tens ofthousands of dollars, and possiblymore, in recent weeks to lobby theWhite House for clemency for theson of a former Arkansas senator;the founder of the notorious onlinedrug marketplace Silk Road; anda Manhattan socialite whopleaded guilty in a fraud scheme.

Mr. Trump’s former personallawyer John M. Dowd has mar-keted himself to convicted felonsas someone who could secure par-dons because of his close relation-ship with the president, acceptingtens of thousands of dollars from awealthy felon and advising him

Pardon SeasonEnriches AlliesOf the President

By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDTand KENNETH P. VOGEL

Continued on Page A14

MOSCOW — Aleksei A. Na-valny returned to his home coun-try Sunday, five months after anear-fatal nerve-agent attack, andwas arrested at the border, a showof fearlessness by Russia’s mostprominent opposition leader andof anxiety by President VladimirV. Putin.

In hours of live-streameddrama that played out in Berlin, inthe air and at two Moscow air-ports, Mr. Navalny careenedheadlong into near-certain deten-tion after deciding to leave the rel-ative safety of Germany, where hehad been recovering from lastsummer’s poisoning.

Hundreds of people braved thebitter cold outside Moscow’sVnukovo Airport to greet Mr. Na-valny, but the low-cost Russianairline he was flying was divertedjust before landing to a differentMoscow airport. There, at pass-port control, Mr. Navalny was con-fronted by uniformed policemenin black masks.

He embraced his wife, Yulia Na-valnaya, before being led away.

“I am not afraid,” Mr. Navalnytold reporters just before he wasdetained, standing in front of aneon sign at the airport that por-trayed the Kremlin. “I know that Iam in the right and that all the

criminal cases against me are fab-ricated.”

Mr. Navalny’s arrest had beenexpected, but the day offeredsome of the most dramatic imagesof recent years underlining both

Russia’s rising domestic discon-tent and the Kremlin’s jitters overit.

Scores of riot police officers incamouflage uniforms and shiny

In Battle of Wills With Putin, Navalny Is Jailed in Moscow ReturnBy ANTON TROIANOVSKI

and IVAN NECHEPURENKO

Aleksei A. Navalny before his flight left Berlin on Sunday. He had been in Germany since August.MSTYSLAV CHERNOV/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Continued on Page A12

Immediately after the attack onthe U.S. Capitol, all corners of thepolitical spectrum repudiated themob of President Trump’s sup-porters. Yet within days, promi-nent Republicans, party officials,conservative media voices andrank-and-file voters began mak-ing a rhetorical shift to try todownplay the group’s violent ac-tions.

In one of the ultimate don’t-be-lieve-your-eyes moments of theTrump era, these Republicanshave retreated to the ranks of mis-information, claiming it was BlackLives Matter protesters and far-left groups like antifa whostormed the Capitol — in spite ofthe pro-Trump flags and QAnonsymbology in the crowd. Othershave argued that the attack wasno worse than the rioting and loot-ing in cities during the Black Lives

Matter movement, often exagger-ating the unrest last summerwhile minimizing a mob’s attemptto overturn an election.

The shift is revealing about howconspiracy theories, deflectionand political incentives play offone another in Mr. Trump’s G.O.P.For a brief time, Republican offi-cials seemed perhaps open tograppling with what their party’sleader had wrought — violence inthe name of their Electoral Col-lege fight. But any window of re-flection now seems to be closingas Republicans try to pass blameand to compare last summer’slawlessness, which was con-

Republicans Spin Capitol AttackWith Barrage of Misinformation

By ASTEAD W. HERNDON

Continued on Page A16

In the two weeks since a ragingmob stormed the Capitol, Presi-dent Trump has shown no signthat he believes he shares respon-sibility for the worst incursion onthe halls of Congress in more thantwo centuries. Shielding him fur-ther, his loyalists have startedshifting blame for the attack to anarray of distracting boogeymen:far-left anti-fascists, Black LivesMatter activists, even vague con-spiracies of a setup involving VicePresident Mike Pence.

But one group of people has al-ready come forward and directlyimplicated Mr. Trump in the riot atthe Capitol: some of his own sup-porters who were arrested whiletaking part in it. In court papersand interviews, at least four pro-Trump rioters have said theyjoined the march that spiraled intoviolence in part because the presi-dent encouraged them to do so.

In the past few days, a retiredfirefighter charged with assault-ing members of the Capitol Policeforce told a friend he went to thebuilding following “the presi-dent’s instructions,” according toa criminal complaint, and a Texasreal estate agent accused ofbreaching the building told a re-porter that by protesting in Wash-ington, she had “answered the callof my president.”

A Virginia man has told theF.B.I. that he and his cousinmarched on the Capitol becauseMr. Trump said “something abouttaking Pennsylvania Avenue.”And a lawyer for the so-calledQAnon Shaman — who invadedthe building in a Viking costume— said that Mr. Trump was culpa-ble and that he planned to ask theWhite House for a pardon.

We Just Followed Trump’s Cue,Several Accused in Rioting Say

By ALAN FEUER and NICOLE HONG

Continued on Page A16

FOX NEWS The network amplifiedlies that radicalized Trump sup-porters, Ben Smith writes. PAGE B1

Phil Spector generated a string of pophits in the 1960s. However, in 2009, hewas convicted of murder and sentencedto 19 years to life. He was 81. PAGE D8

OBITUARIES D6-8

Influential Music ProducerThe Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’sspeeches have a particular resonanceafter a tumultuous year. PAGE A13

NATIONAL A13-19, 22

King’s Words Still ReverberateA new wave of violence and a growinguncertainty about the country’s futurehave left Kabul on edge. PAGE A9

INTERNATIONAL A9-12

Fear in the Afghan Capital

Deaths nationwide were 18 percenthigher than normal from March 15 toDec. 26, an analysis of data from theC.D.C. shows. PAGE A4

TRACKING AN OUTBREAK A4-8

400,000 Excess Deaths in U.S.Adrienne Kennedy’s plays are nevereasy, but a four-play retrospectivereminds us they’re worth the effort,Maya Phillips writes. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-6

Exploring Black Identity

Facebook was going to compete withGoogle on ad sales, but a deal changedthat, court documents say. PAGE B1

BUSINESS B1-5

Tech Giants’ Secret Deal

A look at President-elect Joseph R.Biden Jr.’s 28 cabinet nominees andsenior advisers. PAGE A22

The New Inner CircleDeliveries of the exercise bikes havebeen delayed, sometimes by months,angering new customers. PAGE B1

Where’s That Peloton?A group of up to 7,000 migrants hopesto reach the United States, where asy-lum rules may later change. PAGE A10

Guatemala Battles Caravan

Kara Swisher PAGE A21EDITORIAL, OP-ED A20-21

With Patrick Mahomes injured, ChadHenne sealed Kansas City’s win overCleveland. Tampa Bay beat New Orleansin the other N.F.L. playoff game. PAGE D3

SPORTSMONDAY D1-4

Chiefs and Buccaneers Advance

Late Edition

VOL. CLXX . . . No. 58,942 © 2021 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, MONDAY, JANUARY 18, 2021

Today, blustery, partial sunshine,high 44. Tonight, mainly clear skies,chilly, low 32. Tomorrow, sunshine,patchy clouds, seasonable, high 41.Weather map appears on Page B6.

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