,
16 tweets,
5 min read
Read on Twitter
Starting now: House Oversight will be voting today on a resolution to hold AG Bill Barr and Commerce Sec. Wilbur Ross in contempt for not turning over subpoenaed docs re: the census citizenship question and not making a DOJ official available to testify: docs.house.gov/meetings/GO/GO… 
CSPAN is streaming the hearing here: c-span.org/video/?461640-…
This isn't the last word - assuming the committee approves the resolution, it would then go to the full House for a final contempt vote. The House yesterday also passed a resolution that empowers committee chairs to go to court to enforce subpoenas, see: govinfo.gov/content/pkg/BI…
DOJ has pushed back on the idea that they aren't cooperating — they say they've turned over thousands of docs, and are only withholding ones subject to privilege. And they contend the committee can't force an agency official to testify w/out agency counsel assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6150…
DOJ said yesterday that the committee's plan to proceed to a contempt vote "compelled" Barr to ask Trump to invoke executive privilege, and voila, DOJ just sent out a letter saying the president has done just that: assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6151…
Trump has asserted executive privilege over a certain subset of the requested docs, and has made a protective assertion of privilege over the remaining withheld docs while the White House decides whether they, too, are covered by executive privilege
The House Oversight hearing is underway, stay tuned.
Rep. Meadows begins by saying that Cummings has violated a rule that requires three-day notice before such a committee meeting. He warns that if Cummings overrules the point of order, it may be subject to litigation
Cummings says the House parliamentarian has interpreted the rule to count the day of the notice + the day of the hearing in calculating the three days, so he hasn't violated the rule because they put out notice on Monday
Rep. Jordan says the rule issue re: whether there was enough notice of the meeting re: the contempt resolution "will, in fact, be litigated"
After a roll call vote, Dems defeat a motion by Republicans to challenge Cummings's decision to go ahead with the hearing over the issue raised by Rs about whether there was enough notice in advance. So *now* the contempt hearing is beginning.
Big news this morning: Trump invoked executive privilege for the second time in his presidency to block House Democrats from getting documents from his administration, this time re: the citizenship question on the 2020 Census buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
DOJ announced that Trump had invoked executive privilege as the House Oversight Committee prepared to vote on a resolution to hold AG Barr and Commerce Sec. Ross in contempt for not turning over the subpoenaed documents buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
The House Oversight Committee has resumed the contempt hearing for AG Barr and Sec. Ross, and they're going to be voting. On today's earlier news that Trump had invoked executive privilege to shield certain documents that the committee subpoenaed: buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
NOW: The House Oversight Committee voted 24-15 to approve a resolution that AG Barr and Sec. Ross should be held in contempt for refusing to turn over materials re: the census citizenship question. One Republican, Rep. Justin Amash, joined Democrats buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
DOJ spox on today's House Oversight contempt vote: "Today’s action by Chairman Cummings and his Committee undermines Congress’s credibility with the American people." buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
