NY AG just filed:

[triron]

NY AG Underwood
‏Verified account @NewYorkStateAG

#BREAKING: We just filed a response to @TheJusticeDept's ongoing attempt to block discovery in our suit to stop the Trump admin from demanding citizenship status on the #2020Census.

Sec. Ross has repeatedly given false descriptions of how this effort began. We need the truth.


In March 2018, @CommerceGov Secretary Wilbur Ross announced that he had decided to add a citizenship question to the #2020Census—contravening the Bureau’s long-held opposition to such a question, and disregarding the conclusions of his own staff that it would undermine the count.

In a memo announcing the decision, Secretary Ross represented that he “began” considering adding a citizenship question “[f]ollowing the receipt” of a DOJ letter, dated December 12, 2017. That letter requested citizenship data to enforce the Voting Rights Act.

In Congressional testimony, Ross reiterated that DOJ had “initiated the request for inclusion of the citizenship question” and that Commerce “was responding solely to [DOJ’s] request” for citizenship data.

He also stated that he was “not aware” of any discussions between himself and any White House officials about the citizenship question.

These descriptions of the Secretary’s decision-making process were false.

In June 2018, after my office filed a lawsuit, Secretary Ross acknowledged that the DOJ’s letter had not initiated the Secretary’s consideration of adding a citizenship question.

To the contrary, the Secretary began considering the citizenship question “[s]oon after [his] appointment as Secretary” in February 2017—almost a year before DOJ’s letter.

That’s not all. DOJ had not submitted the December 2017 letter on its own initiative, as the Secretary’s March 2018 memo suggested. Rather, the Secretary and his staff had approached DOJ to ask if it “would request inclusion of a citizenship question.

Today, the Trump administration acknowledged for the first time that Secretary Ross in fact spoke to Steve Bannon while he was at the White House about the citizenship question in Spring 2017—contrary to what he told Congress.

At Bannon’s direction, Secretary Ross spoke with Kris Kobach, the Kansas Secretary of State notorious for pushing for strict laws that disenfranchise many.

Kobach urged the Secretary to add a citizenship question as an “essential” tool to resolve “the problem” of noncitizens’ being counted for purposes of congressional apportionment.


The story keeps unraveling. New Yorkers deserve the truth—and all Americans deserve a #Census untainted by political maneuvering. We intend to get to the bottom of this.

Read our full response: https://on.ny.gov/2pNTsIf

[empedocles]

1. Thank you

[Shrike47]

2. So Ross committed perjury. Do you think the Senate will give a damn?

[FakeNoose]

3. Why can't they make it voluntary?

If somebody doesn't want to reveal their citizenship status, OK fine. There shouldn't have to be this federal case filed.

[homegirl]

4. I will

not answer that question.

[calimary]

5. So the Russian money launderer has spoken, 'eh?

Well, I’m not Russian and I DON’T take orders from that Bank of Cyprus crook!

[UTUSN]

6. K&R

[Hugin]

7. Erm, a final solution to a problem concerning people.

I don't like the sound of this or where it inevitably leads.

[triron]

8. Erm?

[Hugin]

10. Erm.

The Meaning of ERM
ERM means "Awkward conversation filler"

From: https://www.internetslang.com/ERM-meaning-definition.asp

[pat_k]

9. His lies are unraveling, like his actions in 2008 unraveled the world economy

Good to hear this evil bastard's bullshit is "unraveling."

But perjury is the least of his sins.

He -- as principle of American Home Mortgage (AHM) Investment and AHMSI from 2008, the behemoth mortgage lender and servicer that was the second to declare bankruptcy, and the largest non-subprime lender to do so -- was a key player responsible for the fraudulent mortgage practices and bad faith refusal to engage in any sort of loss mitigation of at risk loans that would have protected homeowners and mortgage security bond holders alike -- practices that ultimately brought down the world economy.

That this guy is where he is literally makes me ill.