WTF Just Happened Today

Wednesday, July 17, 2019

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1/ The House voted to hold Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in criminal contempt of Congress for failing to provide documents about the Trump administration's efforts to add a question on citizenship to the 2020 census. Barr and Ross withheld documents that had been subpoenaed by the Oversight and Reform Committee as part of its probe into the origins of the citizenship question. The Trump administration claimed it needed the citizen question to enforce the Voting Rights Act. In May, however, evidence emerged that the question was intended to specifically give an electoral advantage to Republicans and whites. Ross also previously testified before Congress that he added the question "solely" at the request of the Justice Department. It later came out that he'd asked the department to make the request. While Barr and Ross face up to a year behind bars and a $100,000 fine, it's unlikely the Justice Department will pursue the case, because Barr is the head of the Justice Department. (Washington Post / New York Times / NBC News / Wall Street Journal)

2/ The House voted to table a resolution to impeach Trump, put forth by Rep. Al Green, who used a procedural mechanism that required action within two days. Green previously forced two votes on advancing articles of impeachment against Trump in 2017 and 2018, when Republicans controlled the House. (NBC News / Politico / Washington Post / Wall Street Journal)

• READ: The full text of the House impeachment resolution against Trump. (NBC News)

3/ Former Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa said his country was aware that WikiLeaks cofounder Julian Assange was interfering in the 2016 presidential election from inside Ecuador's embassy in London. "WikiLeaks' justification was that they were providing truthful information. Sure, but (it) was just about Hillary Clinton. Not about Trump. So, they were not saying all the truth. And not saying all the truth is called manipulation." Surveillance reports describe how Assange transformed the embassy into a command center to release a series of damaging disclosures intended to undermine Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election. The reports describe how Assange met with Russians and hackers, as well as computer hardware to facilitate data transfers from Russian operatives. "We did notice that he was interfering in the elections," Correa said, "and we do not allow that because we have principles, very clear values, as we would not like anyone to interfere in our elections." (