The House Oversight Committee on Wednesday voted to hold Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in contempt of Congress, escalating a battle between Democrats and the Trump administration over access to material and witnesses in a broad array of investigations.
The Oversight and Government Reform Committee, led by Democrats, voted along party lines to hold Barr and Ross in contempt for refusing to turn over documents related to the decision-making that led to including a question of citizenship in the 2020 census.
Moments before the vote was to take place both the Departments of Justice and Commerce informed Chairman Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., that Trump has exerted executive privilege over the documents, which is a move aimed at helping the administration protect the material in a likely court fight.
The Oversight panel subpoenaed those documents in April after both the Justice and Commerce departments refused to turn them over.
“We’ve been blocked from fully determining the real reason the administration sought to add the citizenship question,” Cummings said.
“That is because the Department of Justice and the Commerce Department have refused to turn over key documents requested by this committee.”
The measure now moves to the House floor for a vote that would allow Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md., to seek civil enforcement in federal court.
Democrats on Tuesday voted to give similar authority to the Judiciary Committee to enforce subpoenas in court following a contempt vote by that panel.
Oversight panel Democrats want to know the motivation for including the citizenship question in the upcoming census which they believe was done at the urging of Trump and for political reasons.
Cummings said the documents they seek include a 2016 “secret study” by a now-deceased GOP political consultant.
According to Committee Democrats, the study found “that counting voting-age citizens in legislative districts — rather than counting all persons — ‘would be advantageous to Republicans and Non-Hispanic Whites.’”
Democrats oppose the inclusion of a citizenship question and argue it will serve to scare immigrants out of completing the form.
“It’s designed to intimidate and install fear,” Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., said.
Wednesday’s contempt vote is the latest step House Democrats have taken to try to force the Trump administration to comply with their broad array of investigations into the president, his personal business, and his actions in the White House.
The administration has been negotiating with Democrats to provide information, but Democrats are not satisfied.
The Commerce Department, for example, has turned over 17,000 pages of documents related to the census, but it does not include the information Cummings and the Democrats are seeking, or are heavily redacted.
“The vast majority of these documents were already public,” Cummings said Wednesday. “Others were heavily redacted and many were not responsive to the subpoenas at all.”
Cummings said the declaration of executive privilege suggests Trump is trying to conceal the purpose of including the citizenship question.
“What is being hidden?” Cummings said.
Republicans accused Democrats of attempting to influence the pending Supreme Court decision on the census.
“Why don’t Democrats want to know how many citizens are in this country?” Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said.
