The House Democrats just voted to hold Attorney General Bill Barr and Secretary Wilbur Ross in criminal contempt of Congress.
The issue was over the census citizenship question, but that was decided by the Supreme Court and President Trump pulled the question. Usually when you get a win you drop the matter, but not in this case.
CBS reported that the House voted to hold AG Barr and Commerce Secretary William Ross in criminal contempt of Congress for failing to comply with subpoenas about the origins of a controversial citizenship question on the 2020 census.
The measure passed by 230 to 198 votes, with 4 Democrats joining all Republicans in voting against the resolution.
The White House immediately slammed the move, calling it “ridiculous and yet another lawless attempt to harass the President and his Administration.”
Just before the House was to vote, William Barr and William Ross requested that Nancy Pelosi postpone the voting in a letter the sent to her.
“By taking this action, the House is both unnecessarily undermining inter-branch comity and degrading the constitutional separation of powers and its own institutional integrity,” Barr and Ross said.
The vote comes after President Trump’s announcement that he will not be adding the question to the upcoming census questionnaire and instead plans to explore other avenues to gain information about respondents’ citizenship status.