Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross called Wednesday's House vote "silly" on whether to hold him in criminal contempt for not complying with a congressional subpoena related to his effort to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census.
"This is silly," he told Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo. "I testified myself for almost seven hours before this committee before senior staff people, including one who's now assistant attorney general in the state of Florida testified as well.
"We answered thousands of questions. We are not stonewalling, but we are also not yielding on the very important matter of executive privilege."
He added: "These are privileged documents. They are going to remain privileged documents and we are not going to be frightened into changing that position just because of some action the House might take."
And he called the threat of a vote "just more political theater."
The House is also expected to vote Wednesday on whether to hold Attorney General William Barr in criminal contempt for not complying with subpoenas relating to the citizenship question.
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