New evidence shows contact between Trump official and Republican redistricting expert over census.
Newly released documents show that contrary to statements by the Trump administration, a member of the president’s transition team communicated directly about adding a citizenship question to the 2020 Census with a Republican redistricting strategist who determined the question would help Republicans and non-Hispanic whites.
The documents, released Tuesday by the House Oversight and Reform Committee, show text messages about the question between transition team member Mark Neuman and the strategist, Thomas Hofeller, in the summer of 2017, at a time when other evidence shows administration members were actively discussing how the question might be added to the survey.
A Justice Department spokesman in May flatly denied allegations of contact between Hofeller and the administration. The spokesman also had said an unpublished study by Hofeller from 2015 showing the question would benefit Republicans and whites had “played no role” in the administration’s push to add the question.
But July 2, two weeks after a request from the Oversight Committee, Neuman produced documents confirming he had communicated with Hofeller and his business partner, Dalton “Dale” Oldham, on how to craft the question, according to a memo released by the committee Tuesday.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/new-evidence-shows-contact-between-trump-official-and-republican-redistricting-expert-over-census-citizenship-question-contradicting-earlier-doj-claims/2019/11/12/95bb97f4-0577-11ea-ac12-3325d49eacaa_story.html
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