House Oversight and Reform Committee votes on whether to find Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in contempt of Congress for withholding Census documents

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump asserted executive privilege on Wednesday to keep under wraps documents related to adding a citizenship question to the 2020 U.S. Census, defying a U.S. House committee in another move to stonewall Democrats' multiple investigations of the president.

The move came minutes before the House Oversight Committee convened to vote on holding two of his Cabinet members in contempt of Congress over the census question.

Democrats on the committee were angered after receiving a letter from the Justice Department saying Trump had asserted executive privilege over the documents.

“This does not appear to be a good faith effort at negotiation,” House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings said in an opening statement at the panel's meeting.

“Instead it appears to be another example of the administration’s blanket defiance of Congress’ constitutionally mandated authority ... This begs the question: what is being hidden?” Cummings said.

He said the committee would vote later in the afternoon on whether to hold Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a committee subpoena seeking the documents related to an administration decision to add a citizenship question to the census.

The census question already has triggered lawsuits with several states and cities saying that asking census respondents if they are U.S. citizens will frighten immigrants and Latinos into abstaining from the count. Critics have said Republicans want to engineer a deliberate population undercount in Democratic-leaning areas where many immigrants live in order to gain seats in the House. </s> The House voted to hold Attorney General William P. Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in contempt after President Trump asserted executive privilege. </s> WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump on Wednesday asserted executive privilege to shield documents about the administration’s decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census, a move meant to try to undercut an expected vote by a House panel to hold his attorney general and commerce secretary in contempt for failing to turn over the materials to lawmakers.

Attorney General William Barr had a day earlier warned the House Oversight Committee that if it moved toward holding him in contempt, he would ask Trump to assert privilege to protect the materials. The committee, though, rejected his offer, and was preparing to vote Wednesday on a contempt finding when Trump followed through on Barr’s threat.

The department revealed the assertion in a letter to the committee, which called the contempt vote “unnecessary and premature.”

In the Justice Department’s view, the privilege assertion undercuts the contempt finding, because it prevents the attorney general from turning over materials lawmakers had subpoenaed.

But the Oversight Committee is expected to hold Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in contempt anyway. Unless they later work out a deal with the Justice Department, the court system will ultimately decide which documents lawmakers are entitled to see.

The Justice Department and the Oversight Committee are essentially on the same trajectory as the Department and the House Judiciary Committee were last month, when the Judiciary Committee voted to hold Barr in contempt for failing to turn over materials related to now-former special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe.

In that case, though, the Judiciary Committee and the Justice Department later worked out a deal. That contempt process is in “abeyance,” though Democrats have taken steps to make sure they have the ability to sue the department in court.

The expected contempt vote Wednesday would mark a further escalation in the fight between House Democrats and the Republican administration over the investigatory powers of Congress that is playing out in multiple committees and the courts.

Democrats say the larger issue is that the White House is almost completely rejecting congressional oversight – stonewalling requests for documents and blocking witnesses from testifying on various subjects. The administration, meanwhile, argues that Democrats are requesting far more materials than they should legally have access to in an attempt to embarrass the president, and they have been unwilling to negotiate.

If the Oversight Committee contempt resolution is approved by the full House, Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md., would be empowered to ask a federal court to order Barr and Ross to comply with subpoenas that sought documents related to the 2020 Census decision and testimony from a senior Justice Department official.

Democrats have already gone to federal judges in Washington and New York to seek enforcement of subpoenas targeting Trump’s financial records in the possession of private companies. They have scored initial wins in trial courts, but appeals are likely to play out over the coming months.

The Oversight Committee authorized Cummings in April to issue subpoenas to Barr and Ross for documents related to the Census decision and for a deposition of John Gore, principal deputy assistant attorney general.

But the Justice Department said it would not comply with the subpoena for Gore to testify. In a letter last week to Barr, Cummings cited the attorney general’s “unprecedented order” to Gore to defy the subpoena as part of the reason for the contempt votes.

Democratic lawmakers have accused the Trump administration of stonewalling their efforts to investigate Ross’s March 2018 decision to add the citizenship question, which the government says it needs to better enforce the Voting Rights Act.

In a statement last week, the Commerce Department noted that Ross has previously testified before the committee and that the department has turned over nearly 14,000 pages of documents to the panel.

Opponents of the citizenship question have argued that it will suppress responses to the survey among immigrant communities, resulting in an undercount in the areas where they live.

The population count from the Decennial Census is used to allocate $800 billion a year in federal funding and determine congressional representation and redistricting.

A key issue in the challenges to the citizenship question is how it came to be added. Ross originally told Congress that his decision to add it came solely in response to a December 2017 request from the Justice Department, but lawsuits later produced emails showing that Ross, who oversees the Census Bureau, had been pushing for the question for months before that.

In March of this year, Democrats on the Oversight Committee grilled him about it extensively, with several asking whether he had lied under oath, and one demanding his resignation.

The committee also met with Gore that month on the matter, but Cummings said he refused to answer more than 150 questions, citing ongoing litigation.

Three federal judges have struck down the Census question, saying Ross’ actions in adding it were in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act.

The Supreme Court heard the case April 23. Evidence in the case concluded with oral arguments that day, and it appeared that the conservative majority seemed inclined to agree with the government that the decision to add the question was within the authority of the commerce secretary.

Last month, new evidence emerged suggesting that the citizenship question was crafted specifically to give an electoral advantage to Republicans and whites.

The evidence was found in the files of the prominent Republican redistricting strategist Thomas Hofeller after his death in August. According to lawyers challenging the question, it reveals that Hofeller “played a significant role in orchestrating the addition of the citizenship question to the 2020 Decennial Census to create a structural electoral advantage for, in his own words, ‘Republicans and Non-Hispanic Whites.’ ”

The lawyers also argued that Trump administration officials purposely obscured Hofeller’s role in court proceedings. </s> This post was originally published on this site

Political News AG Barr to ask Trump to invoke privilege over census materials if Dems move forward with contempt https://linewsradio.com/ag-barr-to-ask-trump-to-invoke-privilege-over-census-materials-if-dems-move-forward-with-contempt/ http://abcnewsradioonline.com/politics-news/

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Justice said in a letter Tuesday that Attorney General William Barr will request that President Donald Trump invoke executive privilege over materials related to the House Oversight Committee’s census investigation if the committee moves forward with a planned Wednesday vote to hold Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in contempt of Congress.

This is the latest escalation in the battle between the Justice Department and House Democrats investigating Ross’ move to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, a move which Democrats claim was intended to intimidate immigrants and minorities, and depress the party’s representation across the country.

House Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings has accused both the DOJ and Commerce Department of stonewalling his investigation by withholding documents and preventing witnesses requested by the committee from testifying on the issue.

But in the letter on Tuesday, Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd said that the committee has refused to engage with the department over a “limited subset” of the requested documents that might be privileged information.

“The Committee has failed to abide by the constitutionally mandated accommodation process by declining to negotiate over the scope of the subpoenaed materials or to recognize legitimate executive branch interest, as well as by its premature decision to schedule a contempt vote,” Boyd said in the letter.

Boyd also addressed criticism from the committee on the DOJ blocking testimony from John Gore, principal deputy assistant attorney general for the civil rights division. The department contends that Barr had only instructed Gore not to testify after the committee declined the department’s request to have counsel accompany him in his transcribed interview.

In a statement announcing the contempt vote, Cummings said Barr and Ross’ unwillingness to cooperate is part of a broader effort by the Trump Administration to dodge oversight from the legislative branch.

“The Trump Administration has demonstrated repeatedly that it is willing to disregard the Constitution, defy decades of clear precedent and invent frivolous new arguments to delay and obstruct Congress’ oversight authority, and Attorney General Barr and Secretary Ross are complicit in this cover-up,” Cummings said.

The Oversight Committee contempt vote on Wednesday comes just days after Barr reached a separate agreement with House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler regarding his request for underlying documents related to special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

Nadler similarly had his committee vote to hold Barr in contempt early last month for withholding those documents, which led Barr to request that Trump invoke executive privilege over the materials the committee requested.

However, Nadler announced on Monday that he was suspending any potential move to hold Barr in criminal contempt.

House Democrats did move forward on a separate resolution Tuesday allowing committee heads to go to court to seek the enforcement of subpoenas, which could speed up their plans to sue the administration for defying subpoenas related to the census, the president’s tax returns and other issues. </s> (CNN) — The House Oversight Committee voted on Wednesday to hold Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in contempt of Congress over a dispute related to the addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census. The vote was 24-15.

The vote came just hours after President Donald Trump asserted executive privilege over materials related to the citizenship question, a move that further escalated tensions between House Democrats investigating the 2020 census and the administration.

The Democratic-led committee voted on a contempt resolution that recommends that the House of Representatives find Barr and Ross in contempt of Congress “for refusal to comply with subpoenas.” The contempt resolution includes citations for both civil and criminal contempt.

Republican Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan joined with Democrats on the committee to vote in favor of the resolution.

Ross called the move an “empty stunt” in a statement and said, “Today, the Democrats maintained their shameless, weekly attacks on this Administration without consideration for the truth.”

The Commerce Secretary said that the committee “isn’t interested in cooperation” and “demonstrated its scorn for the Constitution” by holding the vote.

“This is a disappointing day for Congress and our country. America deserves better,” Ross said.

The Justice Department fired back at the contempt finding, accusing the committee of playing “political games” and saying the panel’s “attempt to define the Department of Justice’s good-faith cooperation as ‘contempt’ defies logic.”

Justice Department spokesperson Kerri Kupec went on to say that DOJ had worked “tirelessly” to respond to the committee’s requests.

“Today’s action by Chairman Cummings and his Committee undermines Congress’s credibility with the American people,” Kupec said.

Rep. Jim Jordan, the top Republican on the committee, called the vote “unwarranted” in a statement as well as “a misuse of the committee’s contempt authority.”

“This vote was another act of political theater designed to interfere with the Supreme Court’s consideration of the reinstitution of a citizenship question on the 2020 Census,” Jordan said.

House Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings said in a statement that the “contempt vote was the last thing I wanted to do,” adding, “I bent over backwards to try to work with the Administration, but they delayed, dissembled, and degraded our Committee’s efforts to conduct this investigation and fulfill our responsibilities under the Constitution.”

It’s unclear what will happen now that the committee has voted on the resolution. Depending on how the Departments of Justice or Commerce respond, House Democrats could go to the floor with both criminal and civil contempt. They could also drop criminal before going to the floor if some accommodation happens.

According to a committee aide, a criminal contempt vote would have to go through the floor. However, civil contempt could go through the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group, which is made up of the three highest-ranked House Democrats and two highest-ranked House Republicans.

Earlier Wednesday, the Department of Justice informed the House Oversight Committee that Trump has asserted executive privilege over materials related to the addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census.

In a letter to Cummings, Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd wrote, “this letter is to advise you that the President has asserted executive privilege over certain subpoenaed documents identified by the Committee in its June 3, 2019 letters to the Attorney General and the Secretary.”

Cummings, a Maryland Democrat, has said that he scheduled the vote because the attorney general and commerce secretary have not complied with subpoenas issued by the committee as it investigates the Trump administration’s push to add the question to the census.

Cummings criticized the assertion of executive privilege Wednesday morning.

“This does not appear to be an effort to engage in good-faith negotiations or accommodations,” he said. “Instead, it appears to be another example of the administration’s blanket defiance of Congress’ constitutionally-mandated responsibilities.”

The specific documents at the heart of the fight — mainly a set of drafts memos and letters exchanged between Commerce and Justice — are covered by certain privileges, according to the Justice Department.

At least one federal court in a different, but related case, agreed with the administration and concluded that the documents were appropriately withheld — a fact that may bolster DOJ’s case if House Democrats take the document production issue to court.

The Commerce Department announced last year that a citizenship question would be included in the upcoming 2020 census. The move has sparked controversy and a high-stakes court battle as critics say that asking about citizenship status will lead to an inaccurate count.

Census data serves as the basis for decisions about how to allocate federal resources and draw congressional districts.

President Donald Trump defended the addition of a citizenship question on Wednesday, saying in remarks to reporters from the Oval Office, “it’s totally ridiculous that we would have a census without asking.”

What happens next

Cummings told CNN on Tuesday that he’s not sure what the next step after his committee would be and if he’d push for a full House vote.

“We will decide that when the time comes,” Cummings said of next steps.

“If they come to us, we will certainly talk to them, but I don’t anticipate that,” Cummings added, referring to the possibility of a deal or any accommodation being reached ahead of the vote.

The Justice Department and Commerce Department have both argued that they are working in good faith to respond to the requests from the committee and have already submitted thousands of pages of documents to the panel.

Ross said in an interview with CNBC on Tuesday said, “Please don’t tell me we’re not cooperating.”

“What we are doing is cooperating in a rational way that’s consistent with the rules, the regulations, the laws and prior practice,” Ross said, adding, “We have produced to the House Oversight Committee 14,000 pages of material. I testified before them for almost seven hours. We’re producing three more witnesses.”

A Democratic committee aide told CNN, however, that those documents have been insufficient and are either publicly available documents, heavily redacted or just not responsive to the request at all and unrelated.

This story has been updated with additional developments Wednesday. </s> WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is asserting executive privilege over documents related to the Trump administration’s decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census.

The Justice Department notified the chairman of the House oversight committee of the decision in a letter Wednesday.

The committee is set to vote on whether to hold Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in contempt for failing to turn over the subpoenaed documents.

Barr says the president has made a “protective assertion” of executive privilege so the administration can fully review all of the documents.

Democrats fear the question will reduce census participation in immigrant-heavy communities, harming representation and access to federal dollars.

Republicans have criticized the hearings as a waste of time and have called for Democrats to move on. </s> The House Oversight Committee voted Wednesday to recommend the full House hold Attorney General Bill Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in contempt of Congress, after President Donald Trump asserted executive privilege over materials related to the committee's census investigation.

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The panel adopted the contempt resolution on a mostly party line vote of 24-15 on Wednesday afternoon, with Republican Rep. Justin Amash notably joining all Democrats in voting for the resolution while all other Republicans voted against.

The privilege assertion marks the latest escalation in the battle between the Trump Administration and House Democrats investigating Ross' move to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, which Democrats claim was intended to intimidate immigrants and minorities, and depress the party's representation across the country.

“The Committee’s attempt to define the Department of Justice’s good-faith cooperation as ‘contempt’ defies logic. Today’s action by Chairman Cummings and his Committee undermines Congress’s credibility with the American people. The Department of Justice has tirelessly worked for months to accommodate the Committee’s requests for information, including producing over 17,000 pages of documents and making senior Department officials available for questioning," Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said in a statement.

J. Scott Applewhite/AP

House Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings has accused both the DOJ and Commerce Department of stonewalling his investigation by withholding documents and preventing witnesses requested by the committee from testifying on the issue.

“For months, the Trump Administration has claimed that the decision to add the citizenship question was made at the Department level rather than at the White House,” Cummings said. “But now the president is asserting executive privilege over all of these documents. This begs the question—what is being hidden?” he said in opening remarks.

Cummings said the committee has obtained evidence that shows Ross was pushing staff to add the citizenship question months before the department made the request, and that he was doing so at the urging of the White House.

“We also now have evidence that President Trump’s advisers began discussing the citizenship question long before he took office,” Cummings said. “After the inauguration, President Trump discussed the idea with his top White House aides, Reince Priebus and Steve Bannon, who in turn pressed it with Secretary Ross.”

J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd argued in a letter Tuesday that the department has sought to engage in good faith with Cummings and handed over thousands of documents relevant to its investigation. Boyd accused the committee of refusing to engage with the department over a "limited subset" of the requested documents that might be privileged information.

"The Committee has failed to abide by the constitutionally mandated accommodation process by declining to negotiate over the scope of the subpoenaed materials or to recognize legitimate executive branch interest, as well as by its premature decision to schedule a contempt vote," Boyd said in the letter.

Boyd also addressed criticism from the committee on the DOJ blocking testimony from John Gore, principal deputy assistant attorney general for the civil rights division. The department contends that Barr had only instructed Gore not to testify after the committee declined the department's request to have counsel accompany him in his transcribed interview.

Yuri Gripas/Reuters

Reacting to the privilege letter in the committee hearing Wednesday, Cummings said it was part of a broader effort by the Trump Administration to dodge oversight from the legislative branch.

"[The Justice Department] has made very clear that they will not produce the key documents that we have identified as priorities," Cummings said. "This does not appear to be an effort to engage in good faith negotiations or accommodations, instead it appears to be another example of the administration's blanket defiance of Congress' constitutionally mandated responsibilities."

The contempt vote comes just days after Barr reached a separate agreement with House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler regarding his request for underlying documents related to special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.

Nadler similarly had his committee vote to hold Barr in contempt early last month for withholding those documents, which led Barr to request that Trump invoke executive privilege over the materials the committee requested.

Andrew Harnik/AP, FILE

However, Nadler announced on Monday that he was suspending any potential move to hold Barr in criminal contempt.

House Democrats did move forward on a separate resolution Tuesday allowing committee heads to go to court to seek the enforcement of subpoenas, which could speed up their plans to sue the administration for defying subpoenas related to the census, the president's tax returns and other issues.

On Wednesday, House Democrats received an update on their multiple legal battles against the Trump administration from House counsel Douglas Letter, whose presentation appeared to tamp down expectations that Democrats' lawsuits - particularly those over the president's financial records, and a potential lawsuit over a subpoena for his tax returns - would be resolved quickly.

"Without getting into the specifics of the timing, it was sobering, that some of this will take a long time," Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Michigan, a member of leadership and the House Ways and Means Committee, said after the meeting. "The less-optimistic scenario is that we’re well into next year on some of these." </s> WASHINGTON (AP) — A House committee voted Wednesday to hold two top Trump administration officials in contempt of Congress for failing to comply with subpoenas for documents related to a decision adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census.

The Democratic-controlled House Oversight Committee voted 24-15 to advance contempt measures against Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan, who has said he supports an impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump, was the sole Republican to join with Democrats.

The vote sends the contempt measures to the full House, although congressional leaders could go directly to court to try to force compliance with the subpoenas under a resolution approved earlier this week.

The committee's action marks an escalation of Democratic efforts to use their House majority to aggressively investigate the inner workings of the Trump administration.

The vote came as the White House asserted executive privilege on the matter Wednesday. The Justice Department said officials had "engaged in good-faith efforts" to satisfy the committee's oversight needs and labeled the contempt vote "unnecessary and premature."

It was not clear what would happen next. A resolution approved by the House on Tuesday empowers committee chairs to sue top Trump administration officials to force compliance with congressional subpoenas without a vote of the full House, as long as they have approval from a bipartisan group of House leaders.

Action to hold Barr and Ross in contempt on the census issue would be a political blow but would not necessarily result in real punishment since the men are unlikely to go to jail or be arrested.

Democrats fear the citizenship question will reduce census participation in immigrant-heavy communities and result in a severe undercount of minority voters. They say they want specific documents to determine why Ross added the question to the 2020 census and contend the administration has declined to provide the documents despite repeated requests.

The oversight panel's chairman, Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, said he was saddened by the vote, but called it an important step to assert Congress' constitutional authority to serve as a check on executive power.

"The census is something that is so very, very important," Cummings told reporters after the vote. "It goes to the bedrock of our very society and our democracy. We need to make sure the census is counted and counted accurately."

A spokeswoman for Barr said the committee's vote defied logic and undermined Congress' credibility with the American people.

"Despite the committee's political games, the department will remain focused on its critical work safeguarding the American people and upholding the rule of law," spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said.

Ross said in a statement that the committee's vote "demonstrated its scorn for the Constitution." He accused Democrats of "continually refusing to engage in the constitutionally mandated accommodation process."

The administration has turned over more than 17,000 of pages of documents and Ross testified for nearly seven hours in March. The Justice Department said two senior officials were interviewed by committee staff and said officials were working to produce tens of thousands of additional pages of relevant documents.

Cummings disputed that account and said most of the documents turned over to the committee had already been made public.

"We must protect the integrity of the census and we must stand up for Congress' authority under the Constitution to conduct meaningful oversight," Cummings said before Wednesday's vote.

The administration's refusal to turn over requested documents "does not appear to be an effort to engage in good-faith negotiations or accommodations," he said. "Instead, it appears to be another example of the administration's blanket defiance of Congress' constitutionally mandated responsibilities."

Trump has pledged to "fight all the subpoenas" issued by Congress and says he won't work on legislative priorities, such as infrastructure, until Congress halts investigations of his administration.

Ross told the committee the March 2018 decision to add the question was based on a Justice Department request to help it enforce the Voting Rights Act.

Cummings disputed that, citing documents unearthed last week suggesting that the real reason the administration sought to add the citizenship question was to help officials gerrymander legislative districts in overtly partisan and racist ways.

Computer files from North Carolina redistricting expert Tom Hofeller include detailed calculations that lay out gains Republicans would see in Texas by basing legislative districts on the number of voting-age citizens rather than the total population.

Hofeller, a Republican operative who died last year, said in the documents that GOP gains would be possible only if the census asked every household about its members' immigration status for the first time since 1950.

The Supreme Court is considering the citizenship question . A ruling is expected by the end of the month. Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union asked the Supreme Court to hold off on a decision, arguing in a filing Wednesday that the federal judge in the case needs time to consider new evidence related to the Hofeller files.

"I think it's totally ridiculous that we would have a census without asking" about citizenship, Trump said Wednesday, "but the Supreme Court is going to be ruling on it soon. I think when the census goes out ... you have the right to ask whether or not somebody is a citizen of the United States."

Some of the documents the committee is seeking are protected by attorney-client privilege and other confidential processes, Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd said. The president has made a "protective assertion" of executive privilege so the administration can fully review all the documents, he added.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said the administration has thwarted congressional efforts to obtain key documents and exercise legitimate oversight. “All we get from the administration is a middle finger” of defiance, Raskin said. “And that’s not appropriate for the power of Congress.” </s> A House committee voted Wednesday to hold two top Trump administration officials in contempt of Congress for failing to comply with subpoenas for documents related to a decision adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census.

The Democratic-controlled House Oversight Committee voted 24-15 to advance contempt measures against Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. The vote sends the measures to the full House.

The committee's action marks an escalation of Democratic efforts to use their House majority to aggressively investigate the inner workings of the Trump administration.

The White House asserted executive privilege on the matter earlier Wednesday. The Justice Department said officials had "engaged in good-faith efforts" to satisfy the committee's oversight needs and labeled the planned contempt vote "unnecessary and premature."

Democrats fear the citizenship question will reduce census participation in immigrant-heavy communities and result in a severe undercount of minority voters. They say they want specific documents to determine why Ross added the question to the 2020 census and contend the administration has declined to provide the documents despite repeated requests.

The administration has turned over more than 17,000 of pages of documents and Ross testified for nearly seven hours in March. The Justice Department said two senior officials were interviewed by committee staff and said officials were working to produce tens of thousands of additional pages of relevant documents.

The oversight panel's chairman, Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, disputed the Justice Department's account and said most of the documents turned over to the committee had already been made public.

"We must protect the integrity of the census and we must stand up for Congress' authority under the Constitution to conduct meaningful oversight," Cummings said Wednesday.

The administration's refusal to turn over requested documents "does not appear to be an effort to engage in good-faith negotiations or accommodations," he said. "Instead, it appears to be another example of the administration's blanket defiance of Congress' constitutionally mandated responsibilities."

Trump has pledged to "fight all the subpoenas" issued by Congress and says he won't work on legislative priorities, such as infrastructure, until Congress halts investigations of his administration.

Ross told the committee the March 2018 decision to add the question was based on a Justice Department request to help it enforce the Voting Rights Act.

Cummings disputed that, citing documents unearthed last week suggesting that the real reason the administration sought to add the citizenship question was to help officials gerrymander legislative districts in overtly partisan and racist ways.

Computer files from North Carolina redistricting expert Tom Hofeller include detailed calculations that lay out gains Republicans would see in Texas by basing legislative districts on the number of voting-age citizens rather than the total population.

Hofeller, a Republican operative who died last year, said in the documents that GOP gains would be possible only if the census asked every household about its members' immigration status for the first time since 1950.

The Supreme Court is considering the citizenship question . A ruling is expected by the end of the month.

"I think it's totally ridiculous that we would have a census without asking" about citizenship, Trump said Wednesday, "but the Supreme Court is going to be ruling on it soon. I think when the census goes out ... you have the right to ask whether or not somebody is a citizen of the United States."

Some of the documents the committee is seeking are protected by attorney-client privilege and other confidential processes, Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd said. The president has made a "protective assertion" of executive privilege so the administration can fully review all of the documents, he added.

"The president, the Department of Justice, has every right to do that," White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said on MSNBC. Democrats are "asking for documents that are privileged, and I would hope that they can continue to negotiate and speak about what is appropriate and what is not, but the world is watching. This country sees that they'd rather continue to investigate than legislate."

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said the administration has thwarted congressional efforts to obtain key documents and exercise legitimate oversight. "All we get from the administration is a middle finger" of defiance, Raskin said. "And that's not appropriate for the power of Congress."

A vote by the full House to hold Barr and Ross in contempt on the census issue would be a political blow but would not result in real punishment since the men are unlikely to go to jail or be arrested.
The House Oversight Committee votes to hold Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in contempt after U.S. President Donald Trump asserted executive privilege over materials related to the committee's census investigation.