Documents suggest connection between GOP strategist and census official on citizenship question, ...
Source: Washington Post
Documents suggest connection between GOP strategist and census official on citizenship question, lawyers say
By Tara Bahrampour June 15 at 1:45 AM
Documents discovered in the files of a deceased Republican redistricting strategist contain further information connecting him to the Trump administration’s quest to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, say civil rights groups challenging the question.
Attorneys for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC), and individual plaintiffs, filed material Friday to Maryland U.S. District Court Judge George J. Hazel indicating that Thomas Hofeller, who died in August, was in direct contact with a top census official regarding the question.
“These newly discovered documents … eliminate any colorable doubt about the link between Hofeller and government employees involved in the citizenship question approval process,” the plaintiffs’ lawyers wrote in a letter to Hazel.
The documents show that Christa Jones, now chief of staff to the director of the U.S. Census Bureau, communicated directly from her private email address with Hofeller about the citizenship question, alerting him to a Federal Register notice for comment on the bureau’s 2015 content test, which she suggested “could be an opportunity to mention citizenship as well,” the letter said.
“Ms. Jones’s direct private contact with Hofeller about the citizenship question refutes Defendants’ contention that no link between Hofeller and the Secretary can be shown,” the letter said.
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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2019/06/15/new-documents-suggest-direct-connection-between-republican-redistricting-strategist-census-bureau-official-over-citizenship-question/
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