The White House headed off a threat from House Democrats to move forward with contempt proceedings against two of its key cabinet members by asserting executive privilege over subpoenaed documents.

A message from Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd sent to House Oversight Committee Chair Elijah Cummings, D-Md., informs the panel that the White House asserted privilege over documents related to the decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census.

"This letter is to advise you that the President has asserted executive privilege over certain subpoenaed documents identified by the Committee in its June 3, 2019 letters to the Attorney General and the Secretary," the letter reads. "These documents are protected from disclosure by the deliberative process, attorney—client communications, or attorney work product components of executive privilege. In addition, the President has made a protective assertion of executive privilege over the remainder of the subpoenaed documents."

The scheduled contempt vote was against Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross over their agencies' response to subpoenas issued in April.

"We gave Attorney General Barr and Secretary Ross every opportunity to produce the documents the Committee needs for our investigation, but rather than cooperate, they have decided that they would rather be held in contempt of Congress," Cummings said last week. "They produced none of the documents we asked for, they made no counter-offers regarding these documents, and they seem determined to continue the Trump Administration's cover-up."

The DOJ, however, insists that it has been working with Congress in "good faith," but isn't being given enough time to produce the protected documents.

"By proceeding with today's vote, you have abandoned the accommodation process with respect to your requests and subpoenas for documents concerning the Secretary's decision to include a citizenship question on the 2020 Census," the new DOJ letter warns. "The Executive Branch has engaged in good-faith efforts to satisfy the legislative needs of the Committee. ... Unfortunately, rather than allowing the Department to complete its document production, you have chosen to go forward with an unnecessary and premature contempt vote."

In response to the Wednesday morning letter, the committee delayed its scheduled vote until that afternoon to give its members a few hours to digest the new information before making a decision. Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., however, requested that the vote be delayed by "at least two weeks" instead.

The Department of Commerce announced last March that the U.S. Census would reinstate a question on citizenship status for the 2020 population survey. California sued to block the move. A federal judge blocked it. The Supreme Court is expected to take the question up.

"In its zeal to influence the Supreme Court's decision, the committee is poised to hold Secretary Ross in contempt," a Commerce Department spokesperson said last week. "Holding the secretary in contempt is an empty stunt, and it shows that the committee is simply interested in playing politics."

On Monday, a similar effort to hold Barr in contempt over the Mueller report was put on hold as the DOJ and the House Judiciary Committee announced a deal on subpoena compliance.

Thursday on the radio, LevinTV host Mark Levin lit into the leftist media for continuing to play up the phony Russia-collusion investigation after Trump's former attorney, Michael Cohen, plead guilty Thursday of lying before Congress.

Levin explained that Cohen's personal corruption is not indicative of the president himself.

"People keep saying, 'What are the legal implications for Trump?'" Levin asked. "There are none. Zero. There's no legal implication; there's no legal jeopardy, period. Moreover, in all this so-called reporting and analysis by these phony experts, where did President Trump collude, coordinate, or conspire with the Russians during the election, to fix the result of the election? Where is this evidence? And since there's not a scintilla of evidence, this should underscore the point that this entire investigation is bogus."

Listen:

"Shouldn't [the media] be cheering over the fact that so far, all the leaks show that Trump did nothing? Shouldn't they be celebrating that, that in our republic, the president that we chose is guilty of nothing? That he didn't collaborate, he didn't coordinate, he didn't conspire with the Russians? But they're not. They keep bringing in these phony experts, who are utterly predictable. 'You know, uh, if I were Don Jr., I'd be worried about now' — the country should be worried about now, about what's taking place. The country should be worried," Levin said.

Levin explained that there has there never been a "substantive, underlying crime" to expose and reiterated that the president is not in legal danger, despite the media's assertions.

"How many more damn times do I have to explain that it is the position of the United States Department of Justice that you cannot indict a sitting president? He's not in any kind of legal jeopardy."