Trump asserts executive privilege to shield documents on Census citizenship question [View all]

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Last edited Wed Jun 12, 2019, 11:02 AM - Edit history (1)

Source: Washington Post

President 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 P. 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.




Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/trump-asserts-executive-privilege-to-shield-documents-on-census-citizenship-question/2019/06/12/971263c8-8d11-11e9-adf3-f70f78c156e8_story.html

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Original article and headline -

Trump asserts executive privilege to shield documents from House panel investigating decision to add citizenship question to census

By Washington Post Staff
June 12 at 10:26 AM

The decision was meant to try to undermine a vote by the House Oversight Committee to hold Attorney General William P. Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in contempt for failing to turn over the materials to lawmakers.

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

This is a developing story. It will be updated.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2019/06/12/trump-asserts-executive-privilege-to-shield-documents-from-house-panel-investigating-decision-to-add-citizenship-question-to-census/?utm_term=.8dc248c1a47a