People demonstrate outside the U.S. Supreme Court on the day of arguments in the census case, “United States Department of Commerce v. New York,” No. 18-966, on April 23, 2019. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM
A top attorney for Gov. Ron DeSantis refused to answer questions during a congressional interview about the “key role” he played in adding a citizenship question to the 2020 U.S. Census while working in the Trump administration.
James Uthmeier, DeSantis’ deputy general counsel and a former senior adviser and legal counsel to U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, agreed to a transcribed interview with the U.S. House Oversight and Reform Committee but did not answer questions “implicating Executive Branch confidentiality and litigation concerns,” according to Helen Aguirre Ferre, DeSantis’ communications director.
