Docs Expose Trump’s ‘Illegal’ Effort to Help GOP by Weaponizing Census

A U.S. House of Representatives panel probing the Trump administration’s attempt to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census on Wednesday released a memorandum underscoring that the failed effort was politically motivated.

The memo focuses on documents that were finally shared with the panel in January after former President Donald Trump’s commerce secretary and attorney general, Wilbur Ross and William Barr, were held in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over requested materials.

“The documents ultimately obtained by the committee—including the legal memorandum prepared for Secretary Ross and secret communications between Trump administration lawyers and political appointees—shed additional light on the depth of partisan manipulation in the 2020 census, including senior officials’ focus on using a citizenship question to alter apportionment counts and their illegal attempt to develop a pretext,” the memo states.

“These documents exposed the vulnerability of our national statistical system to partisan manipulation and highlighted the need for Congress to protect the constitutionally mandated census from abuses of power and political interference,” the memo continues.

As the panel’s report lays out, the documents from the departments of Commerce and Justice (DOJ) show that:

• Contrary to Secretary Ross’ testimony to Congress, congressional apportionment was central to his efforts to add a citizenship question;
• The initial draft of the legal memo warned that using a citizenship question for apportionment would likely violate the Constitution;
• Commerce officials downplayed legal concerns and altered the memo to suggest the citizenship question could be used for apportionment;
• Even as they developed a pretext, Trump administration officials privately admitted their “hook” was that the president or Congress could decide to use citizenship data for apportionment; and
• Secretary Ross secretly steered DOJ towards the pretextual rationale.

Civil rights groups have long slammed the Trump administration’s push for inserting a citizenship question into the census—which informs the allocation of federal funding and the drawing of political voting maps—as a bid to benefit Republican candidates for office.

Both the committee’s memo and chair, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), pointed to the findings as further evidence of the need for reforms—specifically those included in the Ensuring a Fair and Accurate Census Act that she introduced last week.

Originally published at Commondreams.org.