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.

Ferre, speaking on behalf of Uthmeier, said his decision was at the direction of legal counsel for the U.S. Department of Commerce.