Washington Post: GOP strategist and census official discussed citizenship question, new documents filed by lawyers suggest

Documents discovered in the files of a deceased Republican redistricting strategist contain further information connecting him to the Trump administration’s quest to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, say civil rights groups challenging the question.

Attorneys for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC), and individual plaintiffs, filed material Friday to Maryland U.S. District Court Judge George J. Hazel indicating that Thomas Hofeller, who died in August, was in direct contact with a top census official regarding the question. …

Evidence of Hoffler’s involvement was found accidentally by his estranged daughter, on hard drives belonging to him. Stephanie Hofeller Lizon then shared them with the organization Common Cause for a gerrymandering lawsuit it is pursuing in North Carolina.

As that organization continues to sift through material from the hard drives, it alerted plaintiffs’ lawyers Thursday to evidence of Jones’ involvement.

Kathay Feng, national redistricting director for Common Cause, said the Jones-Hofeller emails cast further doubt on the government’s claims.

“Why would she use her personal email? Why would she email a partisan operative about a topic that was not under consideration at the Census Bureau?” Feng said. “The new documents eliminate any doubt about the link between the Republican gerrymandering mastermind and the citizenship question.”