White House refuses House Judiciary's request for documents

The White House is rejecting a sweeping request from the House Judiciary Committee for documents, suggesting the panel is attempting a "do-over" of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe and calling on the committee to narrow its scope.

“It appears that the Committee's inquiry is designed, not to further a legitimate legislative purpose, but rather to conduct a pseudo law enforcement investigation on matters that were already the subject of the Special Counsel's long-running investigation and are outside the constitutional authority of the legislative branch,” White House counsel Pat Cipollone asserted in a 12-page letter to House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday.

“The only purpose for this duplication seems to be harassing and seeking to embarrass political opponents after an exhaustive two-year investigation by the Department of Justice did not reach the conclusion that some members of the Committee apparently would have preferred. That, of course, is not a permissible purpose for demanding confidential information from the Executive,” Cipollone wrote.

Nadler had requested a trove of documents from the White House in early March as part of his committee's probe into allegations of obstruction, public corruption and abuses of power by President Trump and members of his inner circle.

The panel is seeking documents from the White House related to communications between Trump and former White House counsel Don McGahn; the resignation of Michael Flynn as national security adviser; the termination of James Comey as FBI director; the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting; and any discussions about Mueller’s potential firing.