Trump asserts executive privilege to shield documents on census citizenship question

President Trump asserted executive privilege Wednesday 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.

A day earlier, the Justice Department had warned the House Oversight Committee that if it moved toward holding Attorney General William P. Barr 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.

With the new development, House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) announced that he would delay the contempt vote scheduled for Wednesday morning until later in the day so that members could read the Justice Department letter.