House votes to hold Trump officials in contempt of Congress

WASHINGTON — The Democraticcontrolled House has voted to hold two top Trump administration officials in contempt of Congress for failing to comply with subpoenas related to a decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census.

The House voted, 230198, on Wednesday to hold Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in criminal contempt. The vote is largely symbolic because the Justice Department is unlikely to prosecute them.

The action marks an escalation of Democratic efforts to use their House majority to aggressively investigate the inner workings of the Trump administration.

President Donald Trump last week abandoned his bid to inject a citizenship question into the census, after the Supreme Court said the administration’s justification for the question “seems to have been contrived.” Trump directed agencies to try to compile the information using existing databases.

Earlier Wednesday Wilbur Ross said the vote by the Democraticcontrolled House to hold him in contempt of Congress would be nothing more than “political theater” intended to embarrass and harass the Trump administration.

Ross told the Fox Business Network that his department has supplied more than 14,000 pages of documents related to the 2020 census and excluded only about 15 pages that the administration believes are protected under executive privilege.

The House votedWednesday to hold Ross and Barr in contempt for failing to provide documents related to a decision to add a citizenship question to the census.

Trump last week abandoned that his effort. He is directing agencies to try to compile the information using existing databases.