In July 2020, then President Trump directed the Census Bureau to exclude undocumented residents from the count used for congressional reapportionment. We FOIA’d for communications between the Census Bureau & the White House from the week before the order. Here's what we found:
A political appointee named Nathaniel Cogley was placed in the Census Bureau shortly before the executive order that directed the exclusion of undocumented immigrants from apportionment counts. It appears that Cogley had a direct line with the White House chief of staff’s office.
For example, on the day Trump issued the executive order — July 21, 2020 — Cogley emailed a scheduler in the chief of staff’s office to set up a meeting for the next day.
#FoiaFriday
Later that same day, John Fleming, who was then deputy chief of staff, emailed Cogley a news story about the Census Bureau extending its deadline for census responses until October 31.
americanoversight.org/document/comme…
Cogley responded that it was “a good question as to who approved the Census Bureau making public announcements and redistricting timelines before Congress and the President actually passed a law to that effect."
Cogley’s appointment to a top Census Bureau position in June 2020 raised questions from researchers and members of Congress, as Cogley had no previous experience with the policy issues associated with the role. sciencemag.org/news/2020/07/m…
The close contact between Cogley and the White House appears to further reflect Trump’s politicization of the 2020 census.
Read more about our ongoing investigation here:
americanoversight.org/investigation/…
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