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House Oversight and Reform Committee Elijah Cummings
Elijah Eugene CummingsDOJ Rejects Call to Census Records, Voting for Contempt, DOJ Rejecting Appeal to Census Records, Voting for Contempt, Pelosi Privately Declared Democrats That She wanted Trump to be "in prison": report (D-Md.) On Friday accused the White House of trying to claim the privilege of the executive during an interview that committee staff had had this week with the former Kansas State Secretary, Kris Kobach, regarding his involvement in obtaining a citizenship issue added to the 2020 census.
In the memo, Cummings claimed that the White House had "directly and aggressively interfered" with the undisclosed interview by asking Kobach not to answer questions about his conversations with President Trump
Donald John TrumpKey figures that the report Mueller related to Russia was a source of information of the State Department De Blasio: We talk too much about the dismissal of Democrats De Blasio: We talk too much about the removal of Democrats MORE and other members of the White House staff explaining why the issue was added.
He also stated that the White House had sent several letters to the committee "substantially broadening its previous assertions of executive privilege to apply to Mr. Kobach, a citizen who had not worked for the Trump administration when these communications had taken place ".
"The extension of the executive privilege by the Trump administration, which applies to all persons with whom the President speaks – including those who are completely external to the government – departs considerably from the previous precedent and makes obstacle to the Committee's constitutional responsibility to monitor the census, "wrote Cummings.
The note refers to a letter sent on May 21 by Michael Purpura, White House Deputy Attorney at Cummings, in which it was stated that the executive's privilege applied to the conversations that Trump and the Senior White House advisers had with Kobach.
"The executive's confidentiality interests are not limited to communications directly involving the president and other executive officials," wrote Purpura. "On the contrary, a president and his senior advisers must frequently consult with people outside the executive branch, and these communications are also protected."
And White House lawyer Pat Cipollone wrote in a letter to Cummings Monday – the day of the interview with Kobach – that the White House had a well-established legal foundation to instruct Mr. Kobach not to answer questions regarding his communications with the White House president or senior advisers. "
He wrote that Trump's communications "asking for advice or information related to the performance of his duties" and "communications addressed or received by senior White House advisers to advise the President on matters official government "are both confidential.
Cummings rebuffed his memo remarks on Friday, saying Cipollone's letter "gave no authority to the White House to directly enforce its instructions or to take legal action against Mr. Kobach for answering the Committee's questions."
"Unfortunately, the demands of the White House have had the desired effect. During the interview, Mr. Kobach refused more than 15 times to answer questions about his communications with the President and other White House officials, referring to the House's guidelines. -Blanche ", says the note of the president.
Cummings Friday also revealed some details of the committee's interview with Kobach, but did not publish the full transcript.
The former Secretary of State of Kansas, an unofficial advisor to the Trump campaign and head of the president's commission on electoral fraud, told investigators that he had personally discussed the issue of citizenship with Trump from the beginning of his presidency.
The memo also states that Kobach told the committee that he had had a conversation with the Trump campaign staff about the addition of the citizenship issue to the census. The revelation would delay the time between the beginning of the discussions and the beginning of the discussions.
Ross had already told the committee that he categorically rejected a proposed version of the citizenship question that Kobach had asked him.
However, according to Cummings' note, Kobach provided a different description of Ross's reaction to his proposal.
The departments of the Department of Justice and Commerce have both sought to raise threats of contempt of court in an attempt to derail the Supreme Court's current review of the opportunity to do so. authorize the question of citizenship in the 2020 census.
And the agencies have indicated earlier documents and interviews provided by Ministry staff and attesting to their willingness to cooperate with the Monitoring and Reform Committee's investigation.
But in a statement released Friday morning, Cummings said his panel gave the two cabinet members "every chance to produce the documents the committee needs for our investigation, but rather than cooperate, they decided that" they would be more considered contempt of Congress. "
This vote should take place next week.
The question of census citizenship has been at the center of several legal battles since the government announced it late last year.
The Department of Commerce, which publishes the census, said the issue was necessary to help the Justice Department enforce the right to vote.
But opponents say that asking questions about citizenship will cause some respondents to completely ignore the question or the census, which will lead to inaccurate population counts.
Three federal judges ruled against the Trump administration on this issue. But the conservative majority of the Supreme Court said it would rule in favor of allowing the issue, a decision that should be made by the end of June.
In-depth review of the issue intensified last month, when the US Civil Liberties Union – which sued the Trump administration – on the record – dropped the new minutes showing the role of a strategist limiting the GOP in adding the query to the 2020 census.
This new evidence alleges that the strategist, who died last year, knew that asking questions about citizenship would help the government redefine efforts and undermine Trump 's administration' s argument. The Department of Justice challenged the fact that public servants had later political motives for having the census question.
But a federal judge in New York this week declined to rule quickly on whether Trump officials should be subject to sanctions for new evidence, calling it secondary to the case. current consideration of the issue by the Supreme Court.
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