House votes to hold Attorney General Barr and commerce chief in criminal contempt of Congress

The US House voted to hold two senior Trump administration officials in criminal contempt of Congress on Wednesday for defying subpoenas relating to the 2020 census.

House Democrats, who control the chamber, approved the measure after Attorney General Bill Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross failed to produce key documents as requested by the subpoena.

The citations for the two officials were upheld 230 votes to 198, and is certain to reignite a dispute that involves all government branches surrounding the inclusion a question of citizenship on the census.

Holding cabinet officials in criminal contempt remains rare. But these are unusual circumstances in Washington DC because the White House has refused to cooperate with any subpoenas.

The result of the vote allows the House Oversight Committee to consider taking action against the Mr Barr and Mr Ross in federal court in order to have have the subpoenas enforced.

“This is not a policy battle about the citizenship question,” Rep. Jamie Raskin said during the debate on the House floor. “We can’t legislate if we can’t get the information we need,” he added.

Democrats investigating the issue believe documents and testimony being withheld would confirm suspicions the administration's original rationale - collecting data to enforce the Voting Rights Act- was false.

They are instead convinced the Trump administration wished to add the citizenship question to eliminate non-citizens from statistics to redraw voting districts that would favour Republicans.

Last month, the US Supreme Court alluded to that theory when it ruled 5-4 that the Trump administration's rationale for including the US citizenship question on the 2020 census was "contrived".

The suspicions that collecting data to better enforce the Voting Rights Act was merely a form of political cover were effectively confirmed when Mr Trump admitted as such earlier this month.

“You need it for Congress, for districting," Donald Trump said, before later instructing his lawyers to back down over the citizenship question after earlier declaring he would find a new reason.

The office of the White House press secretary said Democrats had turned down the "numerous good-faith efforts of accommodation the Departments have made".

Democrats have said the material sent to the House Oversight Committee were different to the ones requested, and vowed to continue their investigation into the matter.

“It is bigger than the census," said Rep. Elijah Cummings, who heads the Oversight panel. "We need to understand why the Trump administration tried to add a question based on a pretext."

Not only did the vote formally authorise the commencement of court proceedings, but it also was a stinging rebuke against two of the most senior of Trump administration officials.

There is no real chance that the Justice Department will pursue a case against Mr Barr, who heads the Department as Attorney General, but the result showed the resolve of Democrats in their efforts at oversight.

But the Justice Department, for their part, contend Democrats are less interested in impartial fact-finding than they are embarrassing the Trump administration and inflaming a contrived political battle.

Mr Barr and Mr Ross sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday urging her to cancel the vote, saying producing the documents would cause them to violate executive privilege.

There is nonetheless the potential for a lawsuit over the matter, which would set up a dramatic constitutional clash involving all three branches of the US government.

The Supreme Court has never ruled on whether a congressional subpoena supersedes a claim of executive privilege, thus meaning its decision would reshape the political landscape for years to come.