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DOJ won't prosecute ex-Commerce Secretary Ross for misleading Congress on census question

19 July 2021
Dan Ackermann

The Justice Department has declined to prosecute former Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross for misleading Congress on the Trump administration's push to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census.

Catch up quick: Ross had testified that the Trump administration wanted the addition due to a DOJ request for data so it could better enforce the Voting Rights Act. But internal records showed that Trump officials, including Ross, had planned to add the question long before the DOJ submitted its formal request in December 2017.

Why it matters: Civil rights activists and some census experts feared that adding the question would discourage immigrants from participating, which could then lead to an undercount with significant implications for redistricting and funding.

  • The Supreme Court ultimately blocked the Trump administration's move, calling Ross' Voting Rights Act reasoning "contrived."
  • Democrats also requested that Commerce Department Inspector General Peggy Gustafson investigate Ross on his characterization of the request.

What they're saying: Ross "misrepresented the full rationale" when he testified in Congress on two separate occasions in March 2018, according to Gustafson.

  • "During Congressional testimony, the then-Secretary stated his decision to reinstate the citizenship question was based solely on a DOJ request [from late 2017]," Gustafson wrote in a letter to Democratic lawmakers last week.
  • "However, evidence shows there were significant communications related to the citizenship question among the then-Secretary, his staff, and other government officials between March 2017 and September 2017, which was well before the DOJ request memorandum."
  • "Evidence also suggests the Department requested and played a part in drafting the DOJ memorandum," she noted.
  • After documents revealed in the legal case undermined his testimony, Ross sent a memo to the department clarifying his involvement in June 2018, Gustafson added.

The bottom line: The Public Integrity Section of the DOJ's Criminal Division declined to prosecute the case, Gustafson said.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.