The carnage was reminiscent of deadly attacks by Islamic State supporters using vehicles that have shaken up Nice, France, Berlin, Barcelona, London and New York. But late Monday, Canada’s public safety minister, Ralph Goodale, said this time appeared to be different.

“The events that happened on the street behind us are horrendous,” he said, “but they do not appear to be connected in any way to national security based on the information at this time.”

With the driver under arrest, the Canadian authorities began the process of reconstructing how — and why — a day filled with the promise of early spring became a scene of horror. The authorities released few details about Mr. Minassian on Monday night.

“There were a lot of pedestrians out, a lot of witnesses out, enjoying the sunny afternoon,” said Peter Yuen, the deputy chief of the Toronto police service.

John Flengas, the acting E.M.S. supervisor for Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center, which said it received 10 victims from the scene, described it as “pure carnage.” He told CTV News on Monday that he had seen “victims everywhere.”

One witness said the van had mowed down everything in its path: pedestrians, mailboxes, electrical poles, benches and a fire hydrant. Another, who rushed to help the pedestrian struck while crossing the street, said, “Pieces of the van went flying everywhere.”

Meaghan Gray, a spokeswoman for the Toronto police, said the authorities received a report at 1:30 p.m. on Monday that the van had mounted a curb near Yonge Street and Finch Avenue West. Stephan Powell, a spokesman for the Toronto Fire Department, said pedestrians were struck at “at least two locations.”

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Ten victims were taken to the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center, Dr. Dan Cass, its executive vice president, said at a news conference. Two were declared dead on arrival, five were in critical condition and three were in serious condition, he said.

Dr. Cass said that he did not have information about the nature of the victims’ injuries and that the hospital had not yet confirmed the identities of the dead.

In a statement on Monday, John Tory, the mayor of Toronto, said, “My thoughts are with those affected by this incident and the front-line responders who are working to help those injured.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said, “We’re monitoring the situation closely.”

Yonge Street is Toronto’s main artery, and is widely celebrated as the longest street in Canada. It cuts through the city from Lake Ontario through downtown before reaching the suburbs and then into farmland.

The deaths occurred in the far north, a densely populated part of the city surrounded by many new condominium towers. On Monday, many shops in the area remained closed, at the request of the authorities. And a makeshift memorial was developing at a stone wall just south of Finch Avenue.

Konstantin Goulich, a local resident, appeared with bags of markers and rolls of cardboard from a dollar store.

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“Guys please come and write how you’re feeling: your wishes for the victims, if you’d like to say something. Every bit of support counts,” Mr. Goulich said to passers-by.

“If you can’t write in English, write in your own language write in Chinese, write in Korean,” he said.

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Late in the day, well south of the scene of the killings, extra security was obvious around the Air Canada Centre in downtown Toronto, where the Toronto Maple Leafs were playing Boston in a playoff game. Large municipal dump trucks, apparently filled with sand and gravel, were used to block off roads, including one major thoroughfare near the ice rink.

After the game, which Toronto won, jubilant fans streamed out of the arena, but the only sign of the day’s events on Yonge Street were clutches of police officers wearing bulletproof vests. Some fans expressed shock about the carnage that had taken place earlier in the day.

“We don’t expect this in Canada,” said one fan, Luca Pitsocia, a 21-year-old aspiring paramedic.

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The van used in the rampage was stopped about a mile south of where it took place, said Dan Fox, a civil servant who passed the vehicle on his way to work on Monday. He said it had “significant damage.”

“It looked like the side of the van had scraped along the side of the building,” Mr. Fox said in a phone interview, the sound of police sirens wailing behind him. “The driver-side door was open, but I didn’t see anyone in or around the van.”

The episode in Toronto appeared to be the deadliest use of a vehicle in Canada to deliberately mow down pedestrians.

Last October, a police officer in Edmonton was struck with a car and stabbed, and four other people were later deliberately hit by a U-Haul truck. The driver of both vehicles, a Somali immigrant, was arrested in what Prime Minister Trudeau called a terrorist attack.

In 2014, a driver in the Montreal area struck two members of the Canadian armed forces and was shot and killed by the police, who described the attack as Islamist terrorism. One of the victims died.

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The criminal cases heard around the world are officially over. Michigan Judge Janice Cunningham sentenced Larry Nassar to 40 to 125 years in prison.
USA TODAY

Martha and Bela Karolyi conceded the training environment at the ranch where they built the U.S. gymnastics team into a powerhouse was intense. But in their first interview since sexual abuse allegations against former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar became public, the couple denied creating an environment that was abusive or that enabled his abuse.

In an hourlong NBC News Dateline special on Sunday, the Karolyis responded to criticism from several gymnasts and that have been laid out in two lawsuits against them. They also said they didn’t know Nassar was sexually abusing gymnasts.

“I feel extremely bad,” said Martha Karolyi, the longtime national team coordinator, on Dateline. “I don’t feel responsible, but I feel extremely hurt that these things happened and it happened everywhere but it happened here, also.”

The extent of what happened at the ranch and of Nassar’s abuse of hundreds of gymnasts over two decades, both in his role at USA Gymnastics and as a physician at Michigan State, has engulfed the sport.

McKayla Maroney, a member of the Fierce Five that won gold at the 2012 London Olympics, gave Dateline some of her most detailed comments on the abuse she says Nassar inflicted on her from the first time he treated her.

Maroney is one of more than 260 athletes who has accused Nassar of abusing them under the guise of medical treatment. Olympic champions Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, Gabby Douglas and Jordyn Wieber also have said Nassar abused them.

More: McKayla Maroney raised questions about Larry Nassar’s conduct in 2011

More: USA Gymnastics settles lawsuit that started investigation

Nassar, 54, is serving a 60-year federal sentence for child pornography charges. He was convicted of 10 counts of sexual assault in Michigan and faces a minimum of 40 years in prison after his federal sentence is over.

The Indianapolis Star, which is part of the USA TODAY Network, first made public the allegations against Nassar in August 2016 after being contacted by Rachael Denhollander, who said she’d been abused by Nassar.

Maroney came forward in October, and she gave a statement that was read during one of Nassar’s sentencing hearings in Michigan.

She told Dateline of abuse she endured every time Nassar treated her. Like many other gymnasts and parents, she criticized USA Gymnastics for not prioritizing athlete well-being.

“All they cared about was their reputation, money, gold medals and that was it,” Maroney said. Asked who “they” was, Maroney said, “Martha, the camp, everybody, every single person that worked there.”

The Karolyis, both now retired, conceded the atmosphere at the ranch was “intense.”

“It’s a very serious atmosphere to try to come as close as possible as perfection,” Martha Karolyi said. “You have to find out who are the best ones, who are the best ones who are able to stand the pressure?”

The environment the Karolyis created and how that led to Nassar’s abuse are part of two lawsuits filed against them in 2016. The lawsuits allege the Karolyis hit or scratched gymnasts, that they withheld food and water and that they made comments about gymnasts’ weight.

In their Dateline interview, the Karolyis denied those claims.

“Verbally, we were not abusive. Emotionally, it depends on the person. You have to be a strong person to be able to handle the pressure,” Martha Karolyi said.

“Maybe you say a little overweight, but in order to be a good gymnast, you need to have the right ratio between strength and weight.”

The Karolyis first made a name for themselves as Romania’s coaches at the 1976 Olympics, where Nadia Comaneci scored the first perfect 10 in history, a feat she would go on to duplicate six times in Montreal. But the Karolyis fell out of favor after Bela Karolyi criticized the judging at the Moscow Olympics, and the couple defected to the United States in early 1981.

They eventually opened a gym in Houston and, in 1984, Mary Lou Retton became the first U.S. woman to win the Olympic all-around title, gymnastics’ biggest prize.

The Karolyis retired after the 1996 Games, where Martha Karolyi was head coach of the Magnificent Seven, the first U.S. women’s team to win Olympic gold. But after a series of disappointing results, USA Gymnastics asked them to come back and take over the U.S. women’s program.

In late 1999, Bela Karolyi became the first national team coordinator and implemented a semi-centralized training system, where gymnasts trained at home but came to the Karolyi ranch outside of Houston once a month for national team camps. Bela Karolyi stepped down after the Sydney Olympics, and Martha Karolyi replaced him in early 2001 and stayed in the role until after the Rio Olympics in 2016.

In the Dateline interview, Bela Karolyi said the couple did not hit gymnasts in the U.S. system.

“Probably about 50 years ago in Romania when … even slapping or spanking, that was a common procedure, yes,” Bela Karolyi said. “I never touched anybody (in the United States) and if anybody comes up with that one, that’s a dirty lie.”

While the Americans became the world’s most dominant team under the Karolyis, winning 97 world championship and Olympic medals, some have said their exacting standards fostered an atmosphere in which gymnasts and their coaches were afraid to speak up. It was that culture that allowed Nassar to prey on young gymnasts, some have said. 

“Larry acted like our friend. He always had a sympathetic ear for complaints about our coaches,” Wieber said Wednesday during an appearance before a Senate subcommittee investigating sexual abuse in the Olympic movement. “He would bring us food, candy and coffee at the Olympics when we were hungry. I didn’t know that these were all grooming techniques that he used to manipulate and brainwash me into trusting him.”

In their Dateline interview, the Karolyis said they didn’t know of Nassar’s abuse. Martha Karolyi said she “never, ever (heard), not one single complaint” about the doctor.

“I heard during the testimonies that some of the parents were in the therapy room with their own child and Larry Nassar was performing this,” Martha Karolyi said. “And the parent couldn’t see. How I could see?

“The whole gymnastics community couldn’t recognize this,” she added. “Everybody said Larry Nassar is a good doctor, Larry Nassar is a good guy.”

Maroney, who said Nassar abused her at the ranch and on national team trips that included the world championships and Olympics, expressed doubt about the Karolyis in the Dateline interview.

“They just want to say, oh, we didn’t know. You knew what I ate. You controlled what I wore. You controlled what I said. How could you not know?” she said. “That’s what everybody says, that it’s not their responsibility. They were the leaders of everything.”

USA Gymnastics has previously planned to purchase the ranch from the Karolyis and maintain it as their national training center. But after Biles, a five-time Olympic medalist in Rio, questioned returning to the site where so many gymnasts were abused, USA Gymnastics said in January that it would no longer hold training camps there.

USA Gymnastics has come under heavy criticism for its handling of the Nassar case as well as other sexual misconduct complaints. Former CEO Steve Penny was forced to resign in March 2017, and the entire board stepped down after the U.S. Olympic Committee threatened to decertify the federation.

The USOC also has asked Ropes Gray to investigate how it and USA Gymnastics responded to the Nassar allegations. This follows a report last summer by former federal prosecutor Deborah Daniels, who found that “a complete cultural change” was needed because USA Gymnastics had not done enough to educate its staff, members and athletes about protecting children from sexual abuse. 

USA Gymnastics, which asked Daniels to investigate the organization, is in the process of implementing her 70 recommendations. It also required athletes to be accompanied by a chaperone other than a coach at training camps and international assignments this spring.

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President Donald Trump tempered his optimism on North Korea on Sunday, saying that “only time will tell” how things turn out, as U.S. lawmakers sounded skeptical about promises made by Pyongyang ahead of possible historic talks between the countries’ leaders.

“We are a long way from conclusion on North Korea, maybe things will work out, and maybe they won’t — only time will tell,” Trump said Sunday on Twitter.

In another sign that a successful outcome with North Korea is far from assured, the Wall Street Journal reported late Sunday that Trump won’t be willing to make concessions, such as lifting economic sanctions, until North Korea has substantially dismantled its nuclear arsenal. The Journal cited U.S. officials it didn’t identify.

In an earlier tweet, the president criticized NBC journalist Chuck Todd for suggesting that the U.S. had given too much ground to North Korea in negotiations ahead of the potential meeting with Kim: “Wow, we haven’t given up anything they have agreed to denuclearization (so great for World), site closure, no more testing!”

Symbolic Move

Sunday’s comments followed those from Trump on Friday after Kim pledged to halt nuclear testing in what was seen as a largely symbolic gesture aimed at softening the ground for talks between the two leaders. Trump hailed “big progress” and said he looked forward to the summit with North Korea’s leader, which could go ahead in May or June.

Kim told a ruling party meeting in Pyongyang on Friday his regime would suspend tests of atomic bombs and intercontinental ballistic missiles after achieving its goal of building a nuclear arsenal, the official Korean Central News Agency reported. North Korea will shutter its Punggye-ri test site, a secluded mountain facility believed to be damaged after a hydrogen bomb test in September.

However, the reclusive state’s media has steered clear of using the term “denuclearization” to describe Pyongyang’s offer. Kim has made no commitment to give up the estimated 60 nuclear bombs and the unknown number of intercontinental ballistic missiles he already has — and that could be the sticking point for the White House.

Pompeo Vote

Trump was back on Twitter after returning to Washington from Florida Sunday afternoon. “Funny how all of the Pundits that couldn’t come close to making a deal on North Korea are now all over the place telling me how to make a deal!”

White House legislative director Marc Short said Sunday that the administration has “cautious optimism” about North Korea.

The ongoing negotiations with Pyongyang reinforce the need for a fast vote to confirm Mike Pompeo as the new U.S. Secretary of State, Short said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Pompeo, in his role as CIA director, recently traveled to North Korea in secret to lay the groundwork for Trump’s potential meeting with Kim.

U.S. lawmakers sounded more skeptical than optimistic on Sunday.

Easily Reversible

On CNN’s “State of the Union,” Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee said Kim’s efforts should be met with caution. The Republican, who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said North Korea’s leader has staged a “great public relations effort” to woo Trump.

Corker’s committee will vote Monday on Pompeo’s nomination, which would then move to the full Senate. The former Kansas lawmaker is nearing the votes he needs for confirmation after Democratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota said she’ll cross party lines to back him.

Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat from California, termed North Korea’s pledge to suspend missile testing was “a beginning.”

“The question is whether it lasts or not,” Feinstein said on CBS News’s “Face the Nation.” “The reputation of the North Koreans has been that they don’t necessarily keep their agreements.”

Senator Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas and a close ally of Trump, said Friday’s announcement by North Korea was easily reversible. “It’s better than continued testing, but it’s not much better than that,” Cotton, a member of Senate’s intelligence and armed services committees, said on CBS.

Authorities have identified the victims of Sunday’s shooting that left four people dead at a Waffle House in Tennessee. They were identified as 29-year-old Taurean C. Sanderlin, 20-year-old Joe R. Perez, 21-year-old DeEbony Groves and 23-year-old Akilah Dasilva.

• “Hero” customer wrestled rifle away from Waffle House shooter

Two patients were receiving care at Vanderbilt University Medical Center on Sunday, one was listed in critical condition and the other in stable.

Nashville Mayor David Briley described the shooting as “a tragic day” for the city.

“My heart goes out to the families friends of every person who was killed or wounded,” Briley said in an statement. “I know all of their lives will be forever changed by this devastating crime.”

Taurean C. Sanderlin, 29

Taurean Sanderlin of Goodlettsville was a restaurant employee and was killed outside.

DeEbony Groves, 21

DeEbony Groves of Gallatin was inside the restaurant and was fatally shot.

Local media writes that Groves was remembered as a brilliant young woman and tenacious basketball player. She was an exceptional student and star athlete at Gallatin High before enrolling at Belmont University where she placed on the dean’s list.

“She was a brilliant young lady, very, very intelligent and a very hard worker,” former Gallatin High School basketball coach Kim Kendrick said of Groves. “She was a very likable young lady. She was one of three seniors on her team, and she was a great role model for the other players because of her hard work and dedication to her studies and to her school.”

Groves was a senior at Belmont University majoring in social work.

CBS affiliate WTVF-TV posted a statement from the university saying the campus community is “shocked and devastated”:

“DeEbony Groves was a senior at Belmont University majoring in social work. The entire campus community is shocked and devastated by how such senseless violence has taken the life of this young woman, an individual full of immense potential. We extend our thoughts and prayers to her family and friends as they come to terms with unimaginable grief. Belmont will be offering counseling and other support services to members of our campus in the coming hours and days.”

Joe R. Perez, 20

Joe Perez of Nashville was at the restaurant at the time of the shooting and was killed outside.

Perez’s mother posted on Facebook that “today is the hardest day of my life. Me, my husband and sons are broken right now with this loss. Our lives are shattered.”

Akilah DaSilva, 23

Akilah DaSilva of Antioch was critically wounded inside the restaurant and later died at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

DaSilva’s mother, Shaundelle Brooks, told CBS News her son was a student at Middle Tennessee State University where he pursued a career in musical engineering.

“He meant the world us. He was humble, kind, compassionate, outgoing and very creative. We could describe him in so many words. He spoke through his creativity and he entertained the world through his music,” she said. “Akilah … meaning the intelligent one who reasons.”

CBS affiliate WTVF-TV writes that DaSilva went by the nickname “Natrix.”

DaSilva’s family said he was one of six siblings and “hopes that in the midst of this senseless act of terrorism and hate, his life will not be in vain.”

“He had a smile that could light up a room and a laugh that would warm your heart,” his family said. “He embodied compassion and had a zeal for life. A loving son and selfless friend, he was a beacon of hope, love, and strength in his family.”

They added: “We hope that this tremendous loss will spark tangible action in true gun law reform so no other family would ever have to experience this sort of tragedy.”

A verified GoFundMe page has been setup in DaSilva’s honor.

The family said his girlfriend, 21-year-old Shanita Waggoner, was one of those wounded in the shooting. They said she underwent surgery and doctors were “trying to save her leg.”

CBS News’ Gisela Perez contributed to this report.

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A group of neo-Nazi protestors were met by hundreds of counter demonstrators and a heavy police presence in Georgia town near Atlanta.
USA TODAY

With heavily armed riot police looking on from behind barricades, dozens of anti-fascist demonstrators held signs and chanted Saturday as neo-Nazis held a rally in the small town of Newnan, Ga., leading to about 10 arrests but no injuries. 

Several dozen neo-Nazis wearing black and carrying flags and shields gathered for the rally, which was led by the National Socialist Movement, in Greenville Street Park, about 38 miles southwest of Atlanta. They were greeted by loud boos and a park covered by messages of peace and love written in chalk. 

It appeared to be the largest face-off between the groups since clashes in Charlottesville, Va., last year that left one person dead.

Speakers, who talked about white power and taking the country back from illegal immigrants, stood on a brick stage covered by a large, chalk-drawn rainbow. “Newnan strong” was written below.

Members of Antifa, the loose-knit anti-fascist movement, gathered along the sidewalks on streets leading to the park, many holding up signs. Large barricades and a row of officers wearing riot gear formed a human shield to prevent the groups from clashing, but it didn’t keep the anti-protesters from penetrating the rally with loud, disruptive chants of “Go home!”

At the outset of the gathering, police said they arrested about 10 anti-fascist demonstrators, some reportedly for for wearing masks. About 700 law enforcement officers were on hand to help keep the rally peaceful. 

City workers had blocked off several key streets with barriers and surrounded the park with barricades topped with chain-link fencing.

Newnan police chief Douglas “Buster” Meadows said the region has been planning for five to six weeks and he was “very relieved” to see the event didn’t include any violence and only about 10 arrests. No property damage was reported, he said. 

“I’m so proud of the community,” Meadows said, adding that without the planning and support of local, regional and federal partners, the event could have spiraled out of control. 

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Police allowed protesters onto the sidewalks of the barricaded streets after frisking them at entry points.

Inside the designated area, police with batons and wearing shields and riot gear stood 5-feet apart, forming a barrier between the protesters, who were behind by barricades along the roadway, and the makeshift fence sealing off the park behind them.

At the outset of the protest, Christopher Mathias, a reporter for HuffPost, tweeted video showing police in riot gear tackling and arresting several protesters apparently for wearing masks. The demonstrators were placed face down in the street. The police moved members of the media away from the area and blocked the view with vans, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

Some footage and images of the confrontations showed officers pointing their guns at protesters. Meadows, asked about complaints of excessive force by officers, said he was unaware of the circumstances in which protesters were arrested. 

He said the 10 people arrested were all anti-fascist protesters. It’s unclear whether they were local or traveled to the rally. 

A number of supporters of Antifa have donned masks in past confrontations with white nationalist groups.

But masks were listed as one of the items protesters could not bring to the rally. 

Shortly after 4 p.m., about 60 neo-Nazis were allowed into the park through a passageway opened by police in the fence.

About 30 people, most of them dressed in black, took the stage at the pavilion, displaying flags. Two men held a banner reading “Fighting for a Better Tomorrow.”

They carried flags and shields with red, white and blue markings and swastika-like symbols. One sign disparaged Jews and African-Americans and claimed Jews were behind the refugee movement.

To an audience of about a dozen, along with members of the media, NSM leader Jeff Schoep — who called his group the “vanguard of the white race” — railed against the anti-fascist groups, blaming them for violence in Charlottesville. The members of the NSM, he said, are the “true patriots.”

“We will not back down,” Schoep said. “We will stand against the tyranny of the far left.”

He rejected the label of a hate group and repeatedly said their group “will not be silenced.” Schoep took aim at illegal immigrants and the removal of Confederate monuments, calling it “evil.” 

“It’s U.S. history being erased. Period,” he said. “When you’re trying to erase U.S. history, that is evil.” 

Meanwhile, protesters behind barricades held up signs, including one that read, “You can shoot us, you can run over us, but your side always loses.”

Many chanted, “All power to the people.”

The lead-up to the face-off rattled this town of some 33,000 people south of Atlanta. 

“Praying for Newnan,” Georgia Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle tweeted Saturday. “We must condemn the bigotry spread by hate groups. Our thoughts are with Sheriff Yeager, city officials, and all law enforcement officers who are working to protect residents and we hope the protests remains nonviolent.”

It’s unclear exactly why the group chose Newnan as the place for their gathering, but Burt Colucci, the “chief of staff” for the National Socialist Movement, told the The Atlanta Journal-Constitution it was completely random. 

He told the newspaper their group targets “hot-button isssues” that are controversial and pointed to illigal immigration as something that needs to change. 

“We need to round them up and put them in camps if need be,” he said. “Like we did the Italians, Germans and Japanese. We are at war with the illegals.”

Ahead of the rally, police encouraged business owners to take away things like decorations, chairs or tables that could possibly be thrown or cause damage if a skirmish broke out.

Townspeople and local politicians were wary of a repeat of clashes between hundreds of white nationalists, and their supporters, and counter-demonstrators at the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville last August. In addition to hand-to-hand clashes, a vehicle drove into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing one person and injuring more than a dozen.

“Every citizen has the constitutional right to express their First Amendment freedoms to free speech and protest, but the racist views of neo-Nazis are completely abhorrent,” said Rep. Drew Ferguson, R-Ga. “I commend Mayor (Keith) Brady for his work to ensure a peaceful event and urge the entire Newnan community to stand together to show that there is no place for hate or intolerance in Georgia’s third district.”

One of the goals of the Antifa was to photograph and identify members of the neo-Nazi groups and inform their employers. The website for Atlanta Antifa said Saturday that a number of neo-Nazis were purportedly staying at a hotel in nearby Bremen and urged supporters to call the hotel to complain.

“Ask them why they are endangering locals, other hotel guests, and Georgia residents by accepting multiple bookings from notorious neo-Nazis this weekend,” the website said, while providing the phone number for the inn. “Request that they eject the Nazis from their space.” 

The Antifa group called on its supporters to “be courteous to hotel workers. This is not their fault. They are some of the people most exposed to danger from Nazis staying at the location.”

As in Charlottesville, the Antifa forces pledged to confront the neo-Nazis and called on supporters to carry Sharpies to write on their arms the phone number for “jail support” if they should be arrested.

Dozens of businesses in Newnan banded together to protest the gathering and offer #NewnanStrong T-shirts for sale. Those planning to close on Saturday stayed open late on Friday to help make up for lost revenue and to offer the town an alternative spirit, with music, dancing, face painting and community service sign ups, according to the newnanstrong.com website.
 
“This Saturday we want to be respectful of our local law enforcement and city officials by following their request to stay away from downtown and the conflict that is taking place,” organizers said. 

They called on townspeople to “celebrate the diversity in our community.”

“Celebrate your neighbors, co-workers, the people that you interact with every week that bring value to your life,” they said. “There will be plenty of hate happening in the park on Saturday. Let us overpower that with a flood of community and love on Insta and FB.” 

Contributing: Michael King, WXIA-TV in Newnan, Ga.

When Donald Trump won the presidency, his longtime attorney Michael Cohen seemed in position for a coveted spot in the senior ranks of the White House.

At one point, Cohen topped a list of five candidates for White House counsel, according to documents reviewed by The Washington Post. He suggested to some Trump allies that he might make a good chief of staff.

But when Trump built his West Wing team, the brash New York lawyer did not make the cut.

Some in Trump’s inner circle worried about blowback from Cohen’s associations and un­or­tho­dox tactics in fixing the New York developer’s problems, Trump associates said.

Among those opposed, the associates said, were Trump’s daughter Ivanka and son-in-law, Jared Kushner. For his part, Cohen had warned Trump against giving Ivanka Trump and Kushner White House jobs, saying the president would be hammered by complaints of nepotism, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The rebuff wounded Cohen, according to people familiar with his views, although he continued to publicly express admiration for his longtime boss.

“Here was a guy who dedicated his life to Trump, who was sure he would be a top pick,” said a Trump associate who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe conversations that he witnessed. But, in the end, “He was iced out.”

Now, the bond between the president and his self-proclaimed fixer is under much more punishing pressure: a wide-ranging criminal investigation into Cohen’s business dealings and actions he took to quash negative stories about Trump during the 2016 campaign.

The outcome — and Cohen’s response to the investigation — could determine the fate of both men, who have relied heavily on each other for years.

Both men have sent public signals in recent days that their relationship remains steady, with Trump describing a federal raid on Cohen’s offices and home as a “disgrace” and calling his attorney to check on him.

But associates of Trump and Cohen say that Cohen, with his deep knowledge of Trump’s personal and financial life, could seek to cut a deal with prosecutors at a moment when Trump’s business dealings are facing scrutiny related to the separate inquiry by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Trump’s former attorney Jay Goldberg, who has talked about the matter with the president, said that if Cohen faces jail time, he would be under extraordinary pressure from his family “to say what he believes the government wants to hear.”

In tweets Saturday, Trump rejected speculation that Cohen would turn against him. Citing a New York Times report on the issue, the president wrote that he “always liked respected” Cohen, adding: “Most people will flip if the Government lets them out of trouble, even if it means lying or making up stories. Sorry, I don’t see Michael doing that despite the horrible Witch Hunt and the dishonest media!”

Cohen declined to comment for this story, as did the White House.

Cohen hardly seemed headed for life as a tough-talking “fixer” growing up in an upper-middle-class town on Long Island. He attended a yeshiva day school, and then elite Lawrence Woodmere Academy. His father, a physician, was a Polish-born Holocaust survivor; his mother was a nurse. Cohen described himself as an “agnostic Jew.”

As a teenager in the 1980s, he dated Ukrainian emigre Laura Shusterman. Cohen often visited her home in Queens, and he also visited friends in Brooklyn, where Soviet refugees had settled in Brighton Beach and Sheepshead Bay.

“He grew up in a homogenous, wealthy enclave, and he came to a radically different place, Brighton Beach, on the border of Coney Island, which was filled with immigrants and minorities,” said a longtime Cohen friend who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private relationship.

The Soviet emigres were “tough kids,” and there was a “lot of friction between the Italian and Russian gangs,” the friend said. Cohen emulated them. He later learned to speak Russian “like a 4-year-old,” Cohen told The Post in an interview last year.

Laura’s father, Fima Shusterman, pleaded guilty in 1993 to fraud charges. Cohen married Laura the following year. He befriended a number of emigres from Russia and Ukraine. Among them was Russian migrant Felix Sater, who years later would work with both Trump and Cohen on efforts to develop Trump-branded real estate in Russia and elsewhere.

Cohen was drawn to politics, first as a Democrat volunteering for the 1988 presidential campaign of Michael Dukakis and then as a Republican, losing a 2003 bid for city council.

In a candidate questionnaire for the New York race, Cohen touted his appointment by Republican Gov. George E. Pataki to a transit board, “where I serve as a public watchdog against corruption in government.”

As for his other New York City accomplishments, Cohen wrote that, among his achievements, he had “hectored” a local coffee shop into better managing its trash.

Making money was another Cohen goal. His role model was Trump, whose first book, “The Art of the Deal,” had inspired him. “I’ve been admiring Donald Trump since I was in high school,” Cohen told ABC News.

He invested in the taxi business, for a time managing a fleet of 200 cabs with Simon Garber, a Ukrainian immigrant who also operates a fleet of taxis in Moscow. By 2012, when his partnership with Garber ended, Cohen was earning $90,000 a month from taxi medallions, according to a court filing. He told The Post last year that he never invested in Garber’s Russian business.

Before going to work for Trump, he also invested $1.5 million in a Florida casino boat with two Ukrainian emigres, but the project flopped. “We lost the boat into a foreclosure,” Cohen told The Post last year. “And I wasn’t happy.”

His investments in Trump properties proved more secure. Cohen bought his first property in a Trump building — Trump World Tower near the United Nations — in April 2001, paying $1 million for a condominium that sold 16 years later for $5 million. His in-laws had purchased a separate unit. Trump himself signed Cohen’s sales document.

In 2005, Cohen purchased his most expensive Trump property, in Trump Park Avenue, a former hotel that Trump turned into some of Manhattan’s most luxurious apartments. Its owners included Trump’s daughter Ivanka. Cohen paid $5 million for unit 10A. Again, Donald Trump signed the sales document.

Cohen met Trump in the late 1990s at a political fundraiser for a local Republican whom the developer hosted in Trump Tower. Cohen performed some legal work for Trump in the early 2000s, according to a person familiar with their relationship.

It was a real estate brawl that cemented their bond.

In 2006, Cohen took Trump’s side in a dispute at Trump World Tower, where some condominium owners wanted to oust Trump from managing the property, according to people familiar with the dispute. Cohen, as a unit owner, vocally sided with Trump, who prevailed.

“When Michael won that fight, that’s when Trump gained a lot of respect for him,” said Cohen’s lawyer and longtime friend David Schwartz.

That led to an extraordinary leap in Cohen’s career. Trump hired him as special counsel and executive vice president of the Trump Organization, a privately owned family company that had a collection of hotels, condos, casinos and other properties.

Goldberg, the attorney who was working for Trump at the time, said Cohen stepped into the void left by the 1986 death of Trump’s longtime lawyer Roy Cohn, the former chief counsel to Sen. Joseph McCarthy who had told Trump to counterpunch 100 times harder against whoever tried to hit him.

It was a coup for Cohen, Goldberg said, because at the time, “everybody in the world was trying to get Trump as a client.”

In the following decade, Cohen handled all manner of problems for his boss that could not be solved through traditional channels. Cohen, according to a former associate, employed Trump’s tactics of threats and lawsuits, relying on tough-guy language.

Describing his methods to ABC News, he said that “if somebody does something Mr. Trump doesn’t like, I do everything in my power to resolve it to Mr. Trump’s benefit. If you do something wrong, I’m going to come at you, grab you by the neck, and I’m not going to let you go until I’m finished.”

Cohen also did side deals with Trump. One involved a mixed martial arts fight company called Affliction Entertainment that planned to host pay-per-view bouts in the United States and a reality television show to be filmed in Russia, home to the most famous fighters in the burgeoning sport. The business faltered after Affliction hosted just a few matches.

Cohen, meanwhile, expanded his real estate investments beyond Trump properties. Learning skills from the boss, he invested in New York City real estate and made substantial profits. Starting in 2011, he bought four New York City buildings and sold them for $32 million. One property, a modest apartment building at 172 Rivington St., cost him $2 million in 2011. Three years later, he sold it for $10 million to a family real estate fund represented by Brooklyn lawyer Herbert Chaves, who did not respond to a request for comment. Cohen used the proceeds in 2015 to purchase an interest in a $58 million, seven-story apartment building on the Upper East Side.

Cohen’s wealth is not publicly disclosed, but he has luxurious tastes. He paid $150,000 for a one-month vacation rental in the Hamptons but later sued the landlord, complaining about the small beds and electrical problems in what he called a “nightmare.” The 2014 suit was settled confidentially.

Part of Cohen’s role at the Trump Organization was negotiating licensing deals, selling Trump’s name to developers interested in building Trump Towers abroad. He was the Trump Organization’s main contact for a project in Batumi, a resort city in the former Soviet republic of Georgia. He also told The Post he once traveled to Kazakhstan to try to land a similar deal there.

Ultimately, neither project was constructed, but Trump did make money from preliminary licensing deals in a development in Georgia.

Some of Cohen’s work on international deals has drawn the attention of special counsel Mueller and congressional committees examining possible collusion between the Trump presidential campaign and Russia.

In late 2015, as the Trump campaign was ascendant, Cohen received an email from his old Brighton Beach friend Felix Sater. Sater had worked with Trump on a number of real estate ventures, including Trump Soho condominium. Sater in 1998 pleaded guilty to a role in a Mafia-linked stock-fraud case and later served as an FBI informant, a role that led a federal official to certify that he had provided “information crucial to national security.”

Sater wrote to Cohen that he was pursuing a deal for a Trump Tower in Moscow. Moreover, Sater wrote, Russian President Vladi­mir Putin could help Trump.

“I will get Putin on this program and we will get Donald elected,” Sater wrote to Cohen, according to an email first reported by the New York Times.

In January 2016, Cohen wrote to Putin’s spokesman seeking help on the Trump Tower project. The email went to a general press email address, and the Moscow project did not go forward.

Cohen told congressional investigators in a statement that “this was solely a real estate deal and nothing more. I was doing my job.”

The Moscow proposal came under scrutiny when Mueller and congressional committees began examining Trump’s Russia contacts. Questions also were raised about Cohen’s role in the “Steele dossier,” a report put together by a former British spy that included the unsubstantiated allegation that Cohen had met with Russians in Prague to discuss the hacking of Democrats’ computers. Cohen has said consistently that no such meeting occurred.

Cohen for years had pushed Trump to seek the presidency. In 2011, Cohen created a website, shouldtrumprun.com, and traveled on Trump’s plane to the first-caucus state of Iowa to promote his potential candidacy. Trump decided not to run then, but Cohen kept pushing the idea.

Michael Caputo, a former Trump political adviser, said that Cohen was “an ever-present force” in Trump’s activities, including a prospective run for New York governor, the possible purchase of the Buffalo Bills football team, and a presidential bid.

Cohen also became Trump’s attack dog, particularly with journalists. Most famously, he vowed to a Daily Beast reporter in 2015 to “mess your life up” if a story was published about Ivana Trump’s statement in a deposition that her husband had “raped” her. The story included Cohen’s threats and his incorrect assertion that a person cannot be raped by a spouse. He later apologized, and Ivana Trump, Donald Trump’s first wife, backed down from the allegation.

Cohen’s tough talk and willingness to handle difficult problems for Trump became especially useful as Trump launched his bid for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.

Cohen said his job was to protect his boss “from all those who seek to malign him.” And as Trump was battling Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton for the White House, an issue surfaced that called for Cohen’s tough negotiating skills.

In the campaign’s final weeks, Cohen paid $130,000 to adult-film star Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump a decade earlier.

Cohen has said that the Trump campaign and the Trump Organization were not involved with the payment, which he said he made by drawing money from a home equity credit line secured by his Trump Park Avenue condo.

In the view of several Cohen associates, the Daniels payment was an ill-conceived Cohen effort to curry Trump’s favor at a time when the lawyer’s rivals were shutting him out. The president has said he was unaware of the payment.

Federal investigators are scrutinizing the payment and any involvement Cohen may have had with another Trump accuser, former Playboy model Karen McDougal. She sold the story of her alleged affair with Trump for $150,000 to AMI, the company that publishes the National Enquirer.

AMI did not publish the McDougal story.

After leaving the Trump Organization in early 2017, Cohen became Trump’s personal attorney, and he secured a contract with the New York law office of Squire Patton Boggs, which agreed to pay him $500,000 annually to help the firm land new business, court documents show. The firm ended its association with Cohen this spring, according to filings.

In the past year, Cohen has had just two other legal clients besides the president, his attorney told a federal judge last week: Fox News host Sean Hannity, who said he consulted Cohen on unspecified real estate matters, and Elliott Broidy, a major Trump supporter who served with Cohen as a deputy finance chairman of the Republican National Committee. Broidy used Cohen to arrange a $1.6 million payment to a Playboy playmate with whom Broidy had an affair.

Cohen also had seven unnamed business clients to whom he did not provide legal advice, according to court filings.

Meanwhile, the value of Cohen’s taxi medallions, required to operate cabs in New York City, has plummeted — from the 2014 peak of $1.2 million per medallion to $300,000 today — amid the rise of ride-hailing companies. Cohen owed $56,000 in back taxes for his New York taxi business, records show.

How Cohen will fare under the financial and legal strain of the investigation remains an open question.

“I will always protect our @POTUS,” he tweeted April 8.

The next morning, the FBI raided Cohen’s office and residences.

HOUSTON — Dignity. Grace. Respect, always respect.

In the church, on the streets, lining up to view the casket, they said the same words over and over: Barbara Pierce Bush, the “first lady of the greatest generation,” as one of her eulogists called her, had the good manners of handwritten notes, decency in disagreement, the ability to apologize. Nobody’s angel, nobody’s fool. Tough and fierce, but kind and fair. And don’t forget funny as hell.

Saturday’s funeral for the wife of one president and mother of another offered the nation a deep breath, a moment of quiet reflection, a chance to savor and celebrate a family, a generation, a way of life that feels like it is increasingly slipping away.

“In hours of war and of peace, of tumult and of calm, the Bushes governed in a spirit of congeniality, of civility, and of grace,” eulogist and historian Jon Meacham told the 1,500 mourners gathered in St. Martin’s Episcopal Church on a warm and sprinkly April morning. “ . . . Barbara and George Bush put country above party, the common good above political gain, and service to others above the settling of scores.”

Bush, who died Tuesday at 92, embodied the political establishment. She was the matriarch of a dynasty, the woman clearly in charge. Her hair went white early, and she tried dyeing it for a while, but eventually quit. She liked things real.

She commanded respect and received thousands of letters a week from admirers when she was in the White House. On Saturday, American political royalty turned out to say goodbye, including many women in royal blue dresses and strings of fake pearls, some of Bush’s trademarks.

First lady Melania Trump. The Obamas. The Clintons. Family members of Presidents Ford, ­Nixon, Johnson and Kennedy. (President Carter was traveling overseas, and Rosalynn Carter is recovering from surgery.) Former vice presidents Richard B. Cheney and Dan Quayle. Former prime ministers John Major of Britain and Brian Mulroney of Canada. Governors and Cabinet secretaries and senators, generals and CIA directors.

Old-school proper, like the Bushes. Some more stooped now than during the first Bush presidency, mostly grayer, some steadying themselves on canes.

George H.W. Bush, who always seemed so boyish next to his wife, is in a wheelchair and in frail health at age 93. But still, at a public viewing attended by 6,000 people on the afternoon before the funeral, he sat in front of the flower-laden casket for 20 minutes and greeted the mourners.

It’s what one does.

At the funeral, the former president sat in the front row, next to his wife’s casket that was draped in gold and white. Their daughter, Dorothy Bush Koch, better known as “Doro,” sat next to him with her arm around her father’s shoulder, gently stroking his back, turning the pages of his program for him.

“She was the gold standard of what it meant to be a friend,” said eulogist Susan Garrett Baker, wife of former secretary of state James Baker, who was George H.W. Bush’s White House chief of staff. She listed more of the words that so many used on Saturday: smart, strong, fun, feisty, selfless, compassionate, tender, firm, “a tough but loving enforcer.”

President Trump stayed away to “avoid disruptions” caused by presidential security, according to a White House statement. Trump, at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, tweeted that his “thoughts and prayers” were with the Bush family. That came right after a multi-tweet rant about a “third-rate” reporter, a “drunk/drugged up loser,” and a “Crooked [Hillary] flunkie.”

Trump finished a round of golf just before the service began and tweeted that he would be watching it on TV. The White House released a statement from Melania Trump calling Bush “a woman of indisputable character and grace” and a “fearless First Lady.”

Sitting presidents have often skipped funerals of former first ladies, but Trump’s absence felt more like a presence at times.

Jeb Bush, in his eulogy, didn’t mention the president who once called him “dumb as a rock.” But he spoke of how his mother was the “first and most important teacher” for her five children. She taught them to “say please and thank you,” he said, and to “be kind, always tell the truth, never disparage anyone, serve others, treat everyone as you would want to be treated.”

The mourners and the eulogists were remembering and celebrating not just a woman, but a feeling — a sense of order, grounding and civility that seems missing today.

A river of bad blood flows between Trump and the Bushes, from Trump’s repeated bashing of Jeb Bush as “low energy” to George H.W. Bush’s dismissal of Trump as a “blowhard.” And an angry Barbara Bush also rose to her son’s defense. She joined Jeb for a CNN interview during the campaign, and said she didn’t understand why anyone would vote for Trump — especially ­women.

“I’m sick of him,” she said, with a quick flash of anger in her eyes.

In response, Trump tweeted: “Wow, Jeb Bush, whose campaign is a total disaster, had to bring in mommy to take a slap at me. Not nice!”

When Barbara Bush lived in the White House, her husband called for a volunteer force of “a thousand points of light” to make America a “kinder, gentler nation.” Trump tweets about “flunkies” and “slimeballs” and says his behavior is “MODERN DAY PRESIDENTIAL.”

At St. Martin’s Church on Saturday, the focus was on a different kind of presidential.

Baker spoke wistfully about how Barbara Bush welcomed her family into the “Washington world” decades ago, hosting events for homeless people at the vice president’s mansion “when that wasn’t popular.”

Meacham spoke of Bush’s support for victims of HIV and AIDS in the 1980s, and her public hugging of infected children and adults at a time of public ignorance about the disease.

“The images sent a powerful message — one of compassion, of love, of acceptance,” he said.

He spoke of Bush’s strength after their 3-year-old daughter, Robin, died of leukemia in 1953.

One guest at the funeral, Rita Hajjar, who co-owns a local pizza restaurant and was dressed in a blue suit, pearls and American flag pin, called Bush “the best first lady ever.”

“She lived in a political era that wasn’t one-sided,” said Hajjar, who named a pizza after Bush, a customer for 25 years. “She loved everybody.”

The gathering full of hugs and kisses was a reunion of old friends and colleagues. Former president George W. Bush turned and gave his familiar playful wink to old friends. He and Jeb chatted amiably during the ceremony.

Men and women who have made decisions about war and peace in this country for decades, from former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice to Bush aide Brent Scowcroft and former defense secretary Robert Gates, shook hands and sang along with the choir’s soaring “Amazing Grace.”

After the prayers and the blessings ended, eight of Bush’s grandsons slowly wheeled their grandmother’s casket down the main aisle. They were followed by George H.W. Bush in his wheelchair, pushed by his president son.

As the church filled with the singing of “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee,” mourners stepped out of their pews to catch the hand, or the glance, or any tiny bit of attention from the Bush family. The American dynasty left on the 90-mile journey to the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library for a burial, and for the end of something more than a life.

Sullivan reported from Washington.

The Latest on the death of former first lady Barbara Bush (all times local):

5:30 p.m.

Officials say around 2,500 people have walked past a casket holding former first lady Barbara Bush during a public viewing at a Houston church.

The viewing began at noon Friday and was continuing until midnight. A line of about 10 to 15 people at a time could be seen walking past the casket fairly quickly on Friday afternoon. The stream was steady, but there were no long lines to get through security screenings.

Some people who walked past the casket paused and bowed their heads while others did the sign of the cross. On each side of the casket, a Secret Service agent stood in silence.

Bush died on Tuesday at age 92.

———

4:50 p.m.

A family spokesman says former President George H.W. Bush decided at the last minute to greet mourners paying their respects to his wife, Barbara.

Jim McGrath tells The Associated Press that Bush was watching live video from the Houston church where his wife’s casket had arrived early Friday. Hundreds of people had lined up early for a public viewing that started at noon.

McGrath says the former president was “very touched” by the images he saw. McGrath says Bush told his staff that he wanted to go to the church himself . McGrath says, “It was entirely the president’s idea to go there.”

Bush was at the church for about 15 minutes, shaking hands with dozens of people from his wheelchair, near his wife’s casket. The couple were married for 73 years before Barbara Bush died on Tuesday at age 92.

———

2 p.m.

Former President George H.W. Bush is greeting mourners as they pay their respects and walk past the casket of his wife of 73 years.

The nation’s 41st president was seated in a chair a few feet away from the rose-covered casket Friday at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Houston. He and his wife, Barbara, had long worshipped at the church.

The 93-year-old former president shook hands and accepted condolences from well-wishers for about 15 minutes inside the nation’s largest Episcopal church.

Officials say about 1,600 people had paid their respects in about the first hour of public viewing. People attending the service are going through security checks before boarding shuttle buses to travel a few miles to the church.

Mrs. Bush died on Tuesday at age 92.

———

12:50 p.m.

Hundreds of mourners are filing past the rose-covered casket of former first lady Barbara Bush.

People are commending Bush’s dedication to literacy and education as they pay their final respects Friday during a public viewing at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Houston.

She and her husband, former President George H.W. Bush, had long have worshipped at the church, where mourners lined up hours ahead of the public event.

The planned 12-hour viewing has drawn a steady stream of people who passed through security checks and then boarded buses outside another church a short distance away. They included teachers and social workers commending Bush’s dedication to education, along with federal politicians.

Many women are wearing blue, Mrs. Bush’s favorite color, and pearls, her go-to neckwear jewelry.

The silver casket is in the sanctuary behind a velvet rope in the nation’s largest Episcopal church.

———

11:50 a.m.

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn and his wife are among those paying their respects to former first lady Barbara Bush.

The Republican senator from Texas was among those with early access to the Houston church where a public viewing is being held Friday. Barbara Bush died Tuesday at age 92. She and her husband, former President George H.W. Bush, were longtime members of the church.

Cornyn was followed later into St. Martin’s Episcopal Church by Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, before hundreds of mourners were beginning to arrive on buses from a staging area a few miles away.

Her funeral is Saturday at the church.

———

11:45 a.m.

A couple from Washington, D.C., says they decided to come to events celebrating the life of former first lady Barbara Bush to honor her work in education and helping people with disabilities.

Mitchell and Jessica Queener say they were in Houston for work but decided to join scores of people lining up Friday to pay their final respects to Barbara Bush, who died Tuesday at age 92. Her body will lie in repose from noon to midnight on Friday at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Houston.

Jessica Queener works in special education and wears a cochlear implant to help her with her hearing loss. She says Barbara Bush’s work “really resonates with me on a personal level but also professionally.”

They also credited Barbara Bush for being a positive influence on her husband, former President George H.W. Bush, when he signed the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990.

Jessica Queener says the federal law “brought me a lot more access to the world that I did not have as a very young child.”

———

11:15 a.m.

Maine Republican Gov. Paul LePage has signed a bill creating a specialty license plate for The Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital.

The governor signed the bill this week, shortly after the death of the former first lady. The plate will be available later this year, and $10 for every new plate sold and every renewal will benefit the hospital.

The plate is expected to raise more than $200,000 annually for the state’s only children’s hospital.

The Kennebunkport community is hosting a memorial for Barbara Bush on Sunday. Bush and her husband, former President George H.W. Bush, spent years at their summer home in the town.

———

11 a.m.

More than 100 people are already standing in line to pay their final respects to former first lady Barbara Bush.

Among them is 74-year-old Lucy Orlando, who traveled from Florida. Originally from Haiti, Orlando says she has admired Barbara Bush for years, especially for her work promoting literacy.

Forty-nine-year-old Varney Johnson also commended the former first lady’s work in supporting literacy efforts. The social worker is originally from Liberia and says he also wanted to thank Mrs. Bush for her son George W. Bush’s work during his presidency to support his home country.

Mrs. Bush died on Tuesday at age 92. A public viewing is scheduled to start at noon Friday at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Houston, where she and her husband, former President George H.W. Bush, regularly attended services.

People attending the public viewing will go through security checks before boarding shuttle buses to travel a few miles to the church.

———

10:30 a.m.

A spray of flowers covers the closed silver casket of former first lady Barbara Bush in the sanctuary of the Houston church where mourners are waiting to pay their final respects.

People are lining up hours early to attend a public viewing Friday at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Houston, where Bush and her husband, former President George H.W. Bush, regularly attended services.

Many women are wearing blue, Mrs. Bush’s favorite color, and pearls, her go-to neckwear jewelry.

A hearse containing the former first lady’s casket arrived at the nation’s largest Episcopal church before daybreak. Her body will lie in repose from noon to midnight.

An invitation-only funeral is set for Saturday. She’ll be buried later in the day behind her husband’s presidential library at Texas AM University. The gated plot is in an area surrounded by trees and near a creek where the couple’s 3-year-old daughter, Robin, is buried. She died of leukemia in 1953.

———

12:30 a.m.

As the outpouring of tributes continues for Barbara Bush, the general public can pay its respects to the former first lady at a viewing.

Bush’s body will lie in repose from noon to midnight Friday at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church at 717 Sage Road in Houston, the nation’s largest Episcopal church. The public must go to the Second Baptist Church at 6400 Woodway Drive to park and pass through security. The parking lots can be entered from Voss Road.

Metro is providing shuttles to and from St. Martin’s. The parking lot at Second Baptist will open at 10 a.m., and shuttles will start running at 11:30 a.m.

A by-invitation-only funeral is scheduled for Saturday at St. Martin’s.

Bush died Tuesday at her Houston home. She was 92.

Denying any financial motivation, Mr. Perez said in an interview that the lawsuit had been taking shape for months, and recalled facing demands as early as the winter of 2017 to file suit against Mr. Trump for allegedly abetting foreign interference in an American election. He said he had instructed the committee to investigate that possibility, eventually engaging a plaintiffs’ law firm, Cohen Milstein, to assemble the complaint filed on Friday.

While there are multiple ongoing investigations of Mr. Trump and his campaign, most significantly by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, Mr. Perez said the D.N.C. decided to move ahead with a civil suit because the committee believed there was an ongoing threat of foreign interference in American elections, and it was unclear when Mr. Mueller’s investigation might conclude. And certain claims in the lawsuit, he said, face statutory expiration dates.

“I don’t know when Mueller will finish,” Mr. Perez said. “I’m very concerned about the run-up to the midterm elections.”

Mr. Perez firmly denied that the lawsuit had a political purpose, but he appeared to allude at points to the possibility that civil litigation might bring to light damaging information about Mr. Trump and his associates.

The complaint is largely based on information that has been disclosed in news reports and subsequent court proceedings. But if the lawsuit proceeds, the president and his campaign aides could be forced to disclose documents and submit to depositions that require them to answer questions under oath.

To reach the discovery stage, lawsuits have to survive any motion to dismiss the litigation by the defendants.

Mr. Perez suggested, for instance, that Mr. Trump’s tax returns would reveal “shady conduct” if they were ever made public. Asked if part of the lawsuit’s aim was to force such disclosures, Mr. Perez demurred: “I haven’t given that any thought.”

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In his statement deriding the suit, Mr. Parscale said that if the litigation proceeds, the Trump campaign would use discovery to seek out embarrassing information about Democrats, including Mr. Perez, and their handling of the 2016 presidential election.

“There is a great deal the American public wants to know about the corruption of the Democrats,” Mr. Parscale said.

White House officials and a number of other defendants did not immediately comment on the lawsuit. Roger J. Stone Jr., a former campaign adviser to Mr. Trump who is named as a defendant in the suit, dismissed it in an email as “a left-wing conspiracy theory dressed up as a lawsuit.”

In a statement forwarded by Mr. Stone, Rob Buschel, Mr. Stone’s lawyer, said he had not yet been served with the D.N.C. suit and described it as a “regurgitation” of a complaint filed last year by Democrats alleging their privacy was invaded during the campaign. That litigation is still in progress.

The Democrats’ legal maneuver comes amid a swirl of intensifying scrutiny of Mr. Trump, his associates and their interactions with Russia. The president, who has long denied allegations of collusion, has repeatedly attacked the special counsel investigation this week and has vented angrily about renewed claims by James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, that Mr. Trump sought to influence the bureau’s review of the election.

Mr. Trump added Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York City mayor, and two other lawyers to his legal team this week. And on Thursday night, Mr. Trump thundered on social media that there was “NO COLLUSION and NO OBSTRUCTION,” and again branded the whole Russia investigation as a “witch hunt.”

The D.N.C. complaint is broad in its claims and stark in its language, naming a long list of defendants that includes Mr. Trump; his son, Donald Jr., and son-in-law, Jared Kushner; the Russian government and its intelligence service; and a group of former campaign aides including Mr. Stone, Paul Manafort, Rick Gates and George Papadopoulos.

There is substantial overlap between the targets of the D.N.C. lawsuit and the group of people known to be under investigation by Mr. Mueller. Mr. Manafort has been indicted by the special counsel, while Mr. Gates and Mr. Papadopoulos have both pleaded guilty to different charges.

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The Democrats accused Mr. Trump’s campaign of being “a racketeering enterprise” that worked with the Russians and WikiLeaks in a conspiracy that included hacking email servers at the D.N.C. and leaking damaging information to the public. The Trump campaign had extensive warnings of the Russians’ activities and intentions, the Democrats allege, embraced the meddling of a foreign power.

The lawsuit demands monetary damages and a declaration that the defendants conspired to alter the course of the election.

Mr. Perez said that the party had not worked on the lawsuit with Democratic leaders on the intelligence committees in the House and Senate, who are investigating contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia through legislative investigations.

The lawsuit is not the first attempt by Democrats to use civil litigation in an effort to open another path toward investigating what happened in 2016 that could be carried out under the oversight of a judge — even if President Trump were to shut down the special counsel’s criminal investigation and the congressional oversight probes, run by Republicans, were to fall short.

Last July, two Democratic donors and a former staffer member filed an invasion of privacy lawsuit against Mr. Trump’s campaign and Mr. Stone. It also accused them of conspiring in the release of hacked Democratic emails and files that exposed their personal information to the public.

The timing of that earlier filing came just before a one-year statute of limitations for privacy invasion lawsuits was about to expire; WikiLeaks published the first archives of stolen Democratic National Committee emails on July 22, 2016.

The privacy invasion case was organized by Protect Democracy, a government watchdog group run by former Obama administration lawyers.

In a statement, Protect Democracy on Friday noted that the new D.N.C. lawsuit draws on the same set of underlying facts as the earlier privacy-invasion litigation it brought on behalf of “three Americans whose personal information was exposed through a conspiracy involving the Trump campaign and Roger Stone.” It said it only learned about the existence of the D.N.C. lawsuit from press reports on Friday.

The nine-month-old privacy invasion lawsuit is much further developed than the D.N.C. case. The judge overseeing it, Ellen S. Huvelle of the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, has scheduled a May 17 hearing on the defendants’ motions to dismiss.

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CNN’s Will Ripley, who has reported from North Korea 17 times, says that Kim “is trying to send the world a positive signal ahead of a potentially monumental summit with President Donald Trump. But the steps he is taking at this point are largely symbolic. Operations at missile and nuclear testing sites could easily be resumed, since North Korea has not agreed to destroy weapons or dismantle key facilities. Furthermore, nuclear weapons — and the materials to make them — are undoubtedly hidden at secret sites throughout North Korea that are unknown to the US and its allies. Taking more substantive steps towards denuclearization will come at a high price, far higher than 1994’s Agreed Framework that promised North Korean denuclearization in exchange for light water reactors (that were never built) and heavy fuel shipments (that were often late). This announcement indicates a willingness by Kim to explore denuclearization in exchange for better economic conditions. But it won’t be easy to convince him to give up the missile program that has arguably gotten him to this point, unless there are substantial incentives to do so.