Trump asserts executive privilege in census debate

WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump on Wednesday asserted executive privilege over U.S. Department of Justice documents related to his administration’s inclusion of a citizenship question in the 2020 census. The House Oversight and Reform Committee had subpoenaed all pertinent internal documents as part of an investigation into how and why the Trump administration decided to include the citizenship question.

The president heeded a request from the Justice Department to assert executive privilege after the committee scheduled a vote Wednesday to hold Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in contempt of Congress for ignoring subpoenas. The Justice and Commerce departments said they have handed over many documents to the committee, but they refused to release those related to ongoing litigation.

Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md., criticized the White House for the last-minute assertion of privilege but said he would delay the contempt vote to a later date.

Three federal courts blocked the addition of the census question on citizenship after ruling that the Commerce Department, which oversees the census, did not comply with federal transparency laws. The U.S. Supreme Court heard the government’s appeal in March and is expected to issue a final decision on the matter sometime this month.