DOJ Recognizes Trump Counselors Pushed to Ask Census Citizenship Question



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Steve Bannon, a former adviser to President Donald Trump, contacted Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross in the spring of 2017 and asked him to speak with Kansas State Secretary Kris Kobach about Inclusion of a citizenship issue in the census, depending on the record.

"Secretary Ross remembers that Steven Bannon had phoned Secretary Ross in the spring of 2017 to ask his secretary when he was willing to talk to Kansas State Secretary Kris Kobach about the issue. Secretary Kobach's idea regarding a possible citizenship issue in the decennial census, "the deposit says.

The filing also states that Ross spoke to Jeff Sessions, Attorney General, about the issue "Spring 2017 and at a later date".

Earlier this summer, e-mails were leaked as part of a lawsuit filed by a group of state attorneys general who dispute the addition of the issue to the court. 2020 census.

One of the emails, dated April 2017, came from Brooke Alexander, senior advisor to the Commerce Department, to the wife of the Commerce Secretary, Wilbur Ross. "Steve Bannon asked the secretary to talk about the census with someone," Alexander writes in the e-mail. "He could do it from the car on the way to dinner."

A court of appeal ordered that Ross be deposed as part of the trial.

The Department of Justice is fighting against the order and has brought the matter to the Supreme Court.

On Thursday, New York and several other states filed a brief with the High Court urging the judges to allow Ross's evidence, which the court has blocked for the time being.

As part of the preliminary discovery, states seek to find out more about the reasons that motivated the decision of the administration. The challengers in the lawsuit allege that the administration has used the concerns raised by the law on voting rights as a pretext for hiding animosity against certain ethnicities.

"The secretary's testimony is the only way in which the district court can obtain critical facts about the reasons for the secretary's considerable efforts to add the question of citizenship – essential elements for understanding the real reasons. of the secretary, assessing the plaintiffs' claims, and finally determining whether the secretary's decision was arbitrary and capricious, "wrote New York attorney general Barbara Underwood.

The challengers believe that although Ross said that the additional question was necessary to comply with the law on the right to vote, the real intention was to reduce the representation of immigrant populations. They argue that the issue will have a negative impact on the response rate of non-citizens, who may be too afraid to make themselves known. The trial is to begin on November 5th.

In response, the Department of Justice asks the Supreme Court to reverse the decisions of the lower courts and to block the testimony. The Department of Justice has maintained that the administrative record, and not Ross' mental state, should be a factor in the case.

"In the absence of a suspension, these senior executives will be forced to prepare for and attend these depositions, and this damage can not be nullified by a possible victory over the bottom, "said Attorney General Noel Francisco in court documents earlier in the week. .

It would take five judges to accede to the government's request, and the court could rule on Thursday.

CNN had previously reported that Ross had testified before the House earlier this year that the Department of Justice had "initiated the demand for the inclusion of the citizenship issue". In his March memo, Ross said that he "was given the goal of re-adding the issue as a result of the Justice Department's request."
In a notice to a lower court, Judge Jesse Furman wrote: "The record set up so far, however, casts serious doubt on these claims." He noted that Ross, "by his own admission", had begun to consider restoring a citizenship issue shortly after its confirmation in February 2017, but prior to the Justice Department's formal request on December 12, 2017.
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