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Matt Zapotosky
National Security Journalist Covering the Department of Justice
John Wagner
National journalist heads the political press team at The Post newspaper
President Trump asserted on Wednesday the privilege of the executive to protect documents on the administration's decision to add a question on citizenship to the 2020 census, an attempt to undo the vote expected by a panel of the House to convict his Attorney General and his Secretary of Commerce in contempt hand the material to the legislators.
A day earlier, the justice department had warned the House's oversight committee that it was going to despise Attorney General William P. Barr and he would ask Trump to claim the privilege of protecting the documents. The committee, however, rejected his offer and was preparing to vote on a contempt conviction on Wednesday when Trump responded to Barr's threat.
The department revealed this statement in a letter to the committee, which described the vote as "unnecessary and premature".
According to the Department of Justice, the assertion of privilege undermines the Crown's contempt finding, as it precludes the Attorney General from handing over the documents that the legislators had summoned.
[Justice Dept. to Congress: Back off contempt process, or Barr will ask Trump to shield census documents]
Elijah E. Cummings (D-MD), Chair of the House Oversight Committee, announced that he would delay the contempt vote scheduled for Wednesday morning until later in the day so members can read the department's letter. of Justice.
President Trump arrives to speak at the annual Iowa Republican Party dinner at the Ron Pearson Center in West Des Moines, Iowa on Tuesday. (Mandel Ngan / AFP / Getty Images)
"We need to protect the integrity of the census and defend the congressional power, in accordance with the Constitution, to exercise meaningful control," said Cummings, explaining the need for a contempt vote.
He also asked why Trump had been waiting to assert the privilege of the executive on the verge of a contempt vote, given that the subpoenas in question had been issued two days ago. month.
"That raises the question," said Cummings. "What's hidden?"
Wednesday's events marked a new escalation in the struggle between Democrats in the House and the Republican Administration for the investigative power of Congress that manifests itself in many committees and tribunals.
If the contempt resolution on the oversight committee is approved by the House as a whole, Cummings would have the power to ask a federal court to order Barr and Ross to comply with the subpoenas. appearing who were referring to documents related to the decision of the 2020 census and to the testimony of a senior official of the Department of Justice.
It is also possible that Democratic legislators and the Ministry of Justice can still reach an agreement before any court decision.
The Ministry of Justice and the Oversight Committee are essentially following the same path as the Committee of the Ministry and the Judiciary last month, when the Judiciary Committee decided to condemn Barr's disregard for failing to submit documents related to former special advocate, Robert S. Mueller. Probe of III.
In this case, however, the Judiciary Committee and the Department of Justice subsequently developed a compromise. This contempt process is pending even though Democrats have taken steps to ensure that they have the capacity to sue the ministry.
[[[[Democrats in House Agree with Justice Department to Review Mueller's Documents]
Democrats say the biggest problem is that the White House almost completely rejects Congressional oversight, blocking requests for documents and preventing witnesses from testifying on various topics. At the same time, the administration claims that Democrats are demanding more documents than they should legally have to try to embarrass the president, and they did not want to negotiate.
Democrats have already appealed to federal judges in Washington and New York to enforce subpoenas for Trump's privately held financial records. They won the first victories in the courts of first instance, but the appeals are likely to be played over the next few months.
In April, the Oversight Committee authorized Cummings to issue subpoenas to Barr and Ross for documents related to the census decision and the testimony of John Gore, Deputy Attorney General.
But the Justice Department said it would not comply with the subpoena that Gore would have to testify. In a letter to Barr last week, Cummings cited the "unprecedented decision" by Gore's Attorney General to challenge the subpoena as one of the grounds for the contempt vote.
[Federal judge rules against Trump administration’s push for citizenship question on 2020 Census]
Democratic lawmakers have accused the Trump administration of defeating their efforts to investigate Ross's decision in March 2018 to add the citizenship issue the government needs to better uphold the law. on the right to vote.
In a statement released last week, the Commerce Department said Ross had already testified before the committee and the department had handed over nearly 14,000 pages of documents to the panel.
Opponents of the citizenship question argued that this would remove responses to the survey of immigrant communities, which would result in undercoverage in the areas where they live.
The population of the decennial census is used to allocate $ 800 billion a year in federal funds, as well as to determine congressional representation and constituency distribution.
A key problem in challenging the citizenship issue is the way it has been added. Ross had initially told Congress that his decision to add it had been made only in response to a December 2017 request from the Department of Justice, but legal proceedings subsequently produced emails showing that Ross, who oversees the Census Bureau, has been insisting on this issue for months.
On Wednesday, Cummings said the evidence showed that Ross insisted that the issue be added at the request of the White House.
In March of this year, the Democrats on the Oversight Committee questioned Ross extensively about citizenship, many asking him if he had lied under oath and another asking for his resignation.
The committee also met with Gore this month about this, but Cummings said he had refused to answer more than 150 questions, citing ongoing proceedings.
Three federal judges overturned the census question, claiming that Ross's actions to add it violated the law on administrative procedure.
On April 23, the Supreme Court heard the case. The evidence led to argument that day and it appeared that the Conservative majority seemed inclined to agree with the Government that the decision to add the matter fell within the competence of the Secretary of Commerce.
[The Supreme Court can’t ignore damning new evidence on Trump’s census manipulation]
At Wednesday's meeting of the Oversight Committee, Republican Representative Jim Jordan (Ohio), the group's highest representative, asked why Democrats opposed the addition of a question of citizenship.
"Why do not the Democrats want to know how many citizens are in the country?", He asked.
Last month, new evidence emerged suggesting that the issue of citizenship had been specifically designed to give Republicans and whites an electoral advantage.
The evidence was found in the records of Thomas Hofeller, Republican Republican strategist in charge of dismemberment, after his death in August. According to the lawyers who dispute the issue, this reveals that Hofeller "played a significant role in orchestrating the addition of the citizenship issue to the decennial census of 2020 in order to create a structural electoral advantage for, in his own words, Republicans and non-Hispanic Whites. "
The lawyers also claimed that Trump administration officials deliberately ignored Hofeller's role in court proceedings.
Mike DeBonis and Felicia Sonmez contributed to this report.
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