House Dems to hold Barr, Ross in contempt over census question
House Democrats are moving to hold Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena seeking information about efforts to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census.
“Unfortunately, your actions are part of a pattern,” Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), chairman of the House Oversight and Reform, wrote to Barr and Ross in separate letters Monday. “The Trump administration has been engaged in one of the most unprecedented cover-ups since Watergate, extending from the White House to multiple federal agencies and departments of the government and across numerous investigations.”
Cummings said he would consider postponing the contempt votes, which have not yet been scheduled, if Barr and Ross turned over the requested documents by Thursday.
The committee first authorized the subpoena in April as part of its probe into the origins of the administration’s decision to add a citizenship question to the next census. Democrats have argued the move would result in an under-count of people who live in areas with high immigrant populations in a bid to boost Republicans’ political prospects.
Last week, it was revealed that the citizenship question was added at the urging of Thomas Hofeller, a now-deceased GOP gerrymandering guru who argued that adding such a question to the census could benefit Republicans electorally by triggering the redrawing of certain congressional districts. The Trump administration had said that adding a citizenship question would allow it to better enforce the Voting Rights Act.
Cummings said the new evidence showed that the true reason for the citizenship question was “to gerrymander congressional districts in overtly racist, partisan, and unconstitutional ways.”
The subpoenas demand that Barr and Ross turn over emails, memos and any communications with the White House, the Republican National Committee and President Donald Trump’s campaign, among other entities.
Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Gore appeared before the committee behind closed doors earlier this year, but he refused to answer lawmakers’ specific questions about the citizenship question, prompting Cummings to issue the subpoena. Gore later skipped a deposition before the committee after the Justice Department blocked him from attending.
“The tactics of this cover-up are now clear,” Cummings added. “The administration has been challenging Congress’ core authority to conduct oversight under the Constitution, questioning the legislative bases for congressional inquiries, objecting to committee rules and precedents that have been in place for decades under both Republican and Democratic leadership, and making baseless legal arguments to avoid producing documents and testimony.”
Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the top Republican on the Oversight Committee, noted that the Supreme Court was already hearing arguments over the 2020 census, and he said Cummings’ move was “a reckless and transparent attempt” to interfere with that litigation.
“Chairman Cummings' interest in the census is entirely about scoring political points, not conducting meaningful oversight,” Jordan said.
A Commerce Department spokesman said 14,000 pages of documents had already been turned over to the committee, calling the contempt vote against Ross premature and politically motivated.
“To any objective observer, it is abundantly clear that the committee’s intent is not to find facts, but to desperately and improperly influence the Supreme Court with mere insinuations and conspiracy theories,” the spokesperson said.
Barr has already been held in contempt by the House Judiciary Committee for refusing to turn over special counsel Robert Mueller’s unredacted report and all of the underlying evidence. The full House is expected to vote on that contempt citation this month.
Representatives for Barr did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
