Today in one sentence: The House will vote to hold Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in criminal contempt of Congress; the House voted to table a resolution to impeach Trump; Trump said he's "not unhappy" with the reaction to his racist comments; and support for Trump among Republicans rose by five percentage points following Trump's racist tweets and comments.

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.” (CNN / CNN)

4/ A November 1992 tape shows Trump and Jeffrey Epstein at Mar-a-Lago laughing, pointing, and discussing young women dancing at a party. Trump is seen gesturing to a woman and appears to say to Epstein, “Look at her, back there. … She’s hot.” Epstein smiled and nodded. The party took place the same year that Trump a private party with Epstein and more than two dozen “calendar girls,” who were flown in to provide them with entertainment. (New York Times / NBC News)

  • 📌 Day 902: Trump and Epstein were once the only attendees at a party with roughly two dozen women at Mar-a-Lago. 28 women were flown in for a “calendar girl” competition that was organized at Trump’s request. (New York Times)

  • 📌 Day 901: In 2002, Trump told New York Magazine that Epstein was “a terrific guy,” who “likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.” Today, however, Trump told reporters that the two “had a falling out” about 15 years ago and that he “was not a fan of his, that I can tell you.” (Washington Post / Associated Press / Miami Herald / CNN / Washington Post)

5/ Trump said he’s “not unhappy” with the reaction to his racist comments that four congresswomen of color should “go back” where “they came” from. “The only thing they have, that they can do is, now, play the race card,” Trump said. “Which they’ve always done.” Yesterday, the House voted on a resolution condemning Trump’s rhetoric as “racist comments that have legitimized increased fear and hatred of new Americans and people of color.” (Daily Mail)

poll/ 59% of Americans called Trump’s tweets targeting the four congresswomen “un-American,” with 68% calling Trump’s tweets offensive. 57% of Republicans, however, said they agreed with Trump’s tweet that the congresswomen should to go back to their “original” countries. (USA Today)

poll/ Support for Trump among Republicans rose by five percentage points following Trump’s racist tweets and comments that the four congresswomen of color should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.” Trump’s approval rating among Republicans now stands at 72%. (Reuters)

poll/ 51% of voters supported the deportation raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, compared with 35% of voters who oppose those efforts. (Politico)

Notables.

  1. Rand Paul blocked an attempt to pass an extension of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund. Paul objected to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s attempt tried to bring the House-passed bill to a vote, pointing to the growing debt and arguing that any new spending should be offset by cuts to other spending. The Senate, however, is still expected to pass the bill before leaving for their summer recess on August 2nd. (The Hill)

  2. The White House Office of Management and Budget projected that the federal deficit would surpass $1 trillion this year. It’s the first time the U.S. deficit has exceeded the $1 trillion level since the 4-year period following the Great Recession. (Axios)

  3. Federal prosecutors in New York ended their investigation into the Trump Organization’s role in hush money payments made to protect Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign. A federal judge ordered prosecutors to release additional information connected to their related probe of Michael Cohen. Last August, Cohen admitted to making the illegal payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, at Trump’s behest to silence them ahead of the election. (CNN / Politico / NBC News)

  4. Rand Paul asked to be the administration’s chief diplomatic emissary to Iran. Trump approved of Paul sitting down with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif in an attempt to restart negotiations with Iran. Some administration officials are concerned that Paul’s intervention threatens to undermine Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran. (Politico)

Two years ago today: Day 179: White collar crimes.