Oversight panel sues William Barr, Wilbur Ross over 2020 census documents

The House Oversight and Reform Committee filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to enforce the panel’s subpoenas seeking information about the Trump administration’s failed efforts to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census.

“I am filing this enforcement action today because the Trump Administration’s brazen obstruction of Congress must not stand,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), the chairwoman of the Oversight Committee. “President Trump and his aides are not above the law.”

The 85-page lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, comes a day after House Democrats won a major victory in their months-long fight to secure testimony from former White House Counsel Don McGahn.

The suit is an indication that Democrats believe their hand has been strengthened by the victory in the McGahn case as they seek documents related to other subpoenas that the Trump administration has defied.

The House first voted to enforce the subpoenas in July, formally holding Barr and Ross in contempt of Congress for defying the committee’s subpoenas seeking information about the administration’s ultimately unsuccessful efforts to add a citizenship question to next year’s census.

The Justice Department declined to prosecute Barr or Ross for flouting the requests, arguing that the information Democrats were seeking was protected by executive privilege.

Maloney’s lawsuit seeks copies of memos and correspondence related to allegations that the Trump administration’s effort to add a citizenship question to the census was based on political considerations, rather than its publicly stated effort to enforce the Voting Rights Act.

In a statement, a Commerce Department spokesman said the lawsuit “lacks merit” and asserted that the department has cooperated with “overzealous ”House Democrats.

The Supreme Court blocked the Commerce Department from adding the controversial question in June, handing Democrats another legal victory as they argued that the question would suppress congressional representation in communities of color.

President Donald Trump ultimately backed down from the effort after the Supreme Court’s ruling.