Last Thursday Trump Commerce Secretary Will Ross testified under oath in front of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, “for over six hours … regarding his decision to include a citizenship question in the upcoming 2020 census.”
According to the Committee on Oversight and Reform .gov website press release posted after the hearing,
- Secretary Ross refused to tell the Committee about conversations with senior administration officials, including Jeff Sessions, that led to the addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 Census. Secretary Ross cited vague concerns about “confidentiality” but provided no valid basis to withhold this key information from the Committee.
- Secretary Ross would not commit to provide the Committee a copy of a secret memo that the Commerce Department hand-delivered to DOJ just weeks before DOJ requested a citizenship question.
- Secretary Ross also claimed that he had not reviewed the President’s budget request for the 2020 Census.
- During the hearing, the Committee released new evidence from a transcribed interview with DOJ official John Gore. The evidence raises more troubling questions about the real reason Secretary Ross orchestrated the addition of the citizenship question.
The Supreme Court will be hearing oral argument on April 23, 2019.
On a side note, last Friday, SCOTUS agreed to the government’s request to expand the scope to the case to include a recent ruling in a different, but parallel case, they say they plan to appeal from U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg in San Francisco which went further saying that Ross violated the Enumeration Clause because “a citizenship question would lead to a less accurate count, violating the constitutional requirement of an “actual enumeration” of the population every 10 years.” (Bloomberg; NBC) Effectively, once again, bypassing the appeals process and asking the high court to rule on a separate matter.
Watch Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez lay down a perjury trap that Ross jumps into head first.
C-SPAN full coverage.
On A Side Note (Opinion)
Bonus ‘lightening round game’