Good morning. It's Friday. We'll look at the indictment of former President Donald Trump in the context of presidential history in New York. We'll also look at why subway token-booth clerks have stepped out of their booths. |
 | | Mathew Brady/Associated Press |
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Some legal experts and historians say the Manhattan district attorney's office has moved into uncharted territory with a first in American history, the indictment of a former president. |
To take a New York-centric view, firsts in presidential history are nothing new here, starting with the first inauguration, in 1789. It took place in Lower Manhattan, with Washington using his inaugural address to try to heal a deeply divided confederation of states that aspired to be a nation. North Carolina and Rhode Island still had not ratified the Constitution. Even in New York, it had squeaked through by only a narrow margin. |
Anywhere else, there might be a museum, perhaps with a sign saying "John Adams slept here." But the house has long since been demolished, and the closest address these days is No. 3703, "the largest adult megastore in the U.S.A.," according to its website. |
And then there was Ulysses S. Grant, who as a former president was all but ruined in New York. Timothy Naftali, a historian at New York University, surveyed cases against past presidents and said the one involving Grant was the only one involving a former president and actions he took — or did not take — while president. |
The Grant biographer Jean Edward Smith wrote that "daily exposure to the nation's titans of finance whetted Grant's acquisitive instincts." He was hired by railroad moguls who made him president of a line called the Mexican Southern Railroad that literally never went anywhere: "Little track was laid and the line never became operational," Smith wrote. |
Grant's son, "making money hand over fist on Wall Street," suggested that the former president try investment banking. The son had started a firm called Grant & Ward, whose office was at the same Wall Street address as the railroad. The second name belonged to Ferdinand Ward, who was referred to as "the young Napoleon of the financial world." James Fish, the president of the Marine National Bank, was also involved. |
The firm did well, with annual dividends to investors hitting 40 percent. |
But "it was a fool's paradise," Smith wrote. "Ward was kiting the firm's assets, pledging the same securities against collateral against multiple loans and using the proceeds to pay the dividends investors expected." Some financiers suspected the firm was inflating its balance sheet, "but Grant seemed not to care. He knew scores of men on Wall Street who had amassed fortunes quickly, and he assumed Ward had the ability to do likewise." |
When the firm's finances unraveled, Grant appealed to, among others, William H. Vanderbilt of the New York Central Railroad. Vanderbilt handed him a check for $150,000. Grant deposited it, but it was not enough to save the Marine National Bank. Its failure took down Grant & Ward. |
Ward, who the Grant biographer Ron Chernow said bought his share of Grand & Ward with worthless securities, was indicted on grand larceny charges and convicted. Fish — who, it turned out, "hadn't contributed a penny in cash to the firm," according to Chernow — was tried and convicted of embezzlement in federal court. |
"Grant had been blindsided," Smith wrote. Grant's fortune had been invested with the firm. "When he went home that evening he had $80 in his pocket," and his wife had another $130. Chernow wrote that Grant discovered that checks he had given Ward, trusting that Ward would deposit them in the Marine National Bank, had gone into Ward's bank account. |
"The question arose did General Grant, former President Grant, participate in these schemes," Naftali said. "It turned out he was as much a victim of Ferdinand Ward as the investors. But for a moment, there was concern about what involvement he had had." |
Chernow wrote in his biography of Grant that "some in the Democratic press called for Grant's criminal prosecution and even some Republicans saw him as less a victim of fraud than an accomplice." |
But Ferdinand Ward did not implicate Grant, saying that Grant "knew nothing. He had the same information the customers had — and he had the same happiness, while it lasted." |
Like Grant's financial mess, the Trump case involves actions "outside the years he was president." Trump is accused of arranging payments for the porn actress Stormy Daniels before he became president. Grant's financial headaches came on after he had left the White House. |
"Let's not compare Trump to Grant," Naftali said, "but it is the only other instance of the legal jeopardy of a former president regarding actions not associated with the presidency before Trump." |
Prepare for a chance of showers, with temperatures near the mid-50. Showers continue at night, with fog in some areas. Temps are steady around the low 50s. |
In effect until Thursday (Passover). |
 | | Jeenah Moon for The New York Times |
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Out of the booth for good |
 | | Juan Arredondo for The New York Times |
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The city's 2,300 subway station clerks began a new assignment on Thursday: getting outside the booth. |
They began walking through stations, helping riders navigate the transit system and use OMNY, the digital tap-and-go payment system that is replacing the yellow-and-blue MetroCard. |
In a transit system that has not used tokens for 20 years, many subway passengers had come to see the agents' token-booth role as obsolete, what with vending machines for MetroCards and OMNY. So New York City Transit, the division of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority that runs the city's subways and buses, told the station agents to start taking walks through their stations. |
"It's something innovative they're trying to implement, a little bit more personal touch with the customers," said Keith Frett, 59, a station agent for three years. The subway's 450 booths, which are made from sheet metal, heavy glass and aluminum trim, will remain available to workers in stations "for communications and to sit from time to time," according to a spokesman for the M.T.A. |
The hope is that giving station agents a more visible presence will make riders feel safer. But my colleague Ana Ley writes that some station agents were apprehensive about emerging from their booths because they have the same worries about safety as some passengers. |
"Some of the things I see," Cassandra Allison, a station agent for five years, said, her voice trailing off. |
Richard Davey, the president of New York City Transit, said station agents would be no more in danger than cleaning staff who regularly traverse stations. In the last 15 months, officials have deployed more police officers in the subway, installed cameras in train cars and increased efforts to remove homeless people who shelter in the system. Davey said the station agents would be given phones to report emergencies. |
The agents have received a $1 hourly pay increase for the additional duties. The transit authority does not expect the raise to cause budget headaches because transit officials and union leaders have made it easier to reduce overtime. |
On Thursday Mohammed Tushar, a station agent for about five years, swapped a cellphone back and forth with Maria Vernaza, who was using a translation app to ask him for directions in Spanish. She said she was happy to see agents like Tushar outside their booths because she sometimes found it difficult to get their attention when they were inside. |
"It's better to have more contact with them," Vernaza said in Spanish. "They're more helpful now." |
Overheard while having lunch at an Upper East Side diner: |
"So good to see you," one patron said to another. "I must say, your new nose looks so much better than your old nose." |
Glad we could get together here. See you on Monday. — J.B. |
| Melissa Guerrero and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at nytoday@nytimes.com. |
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