White House rejects congressional demands, says investigations say "unauthorized reshuffle" of Mueller probe

May 15, 2019, 17:18 UTC

By Allan Smith

The White House announced Wednesday in a letter to the Judiciary Committee of the House that it would not comply with a wide range of requests from the committee and asked it to "suspend" its investigation into President Donald Trump.

"Congressional investigations are aimed at obtaining information to assess potential legislation, not to harass political opponents or carry out a non-exhaustive" reworking "of comprehensive investigations into law enforcement conducted by the Department of Justice, wrote the White House lawyer, Pat Cipollone citing the 448-page report of the special advocate Robert Mueller on his investigation into the Interference in the 2016 presidential election and whether Trump was seeking to obstruct the investigation.

Cipollone however wrote that he did not exercise the privilege of the executive, adding that he would consider the more restrictive demands of the committee if he could provide the legal support and the goal necessary for these requests.

"The way forward is for the committee to stop the investigation," Cipollone wrote to the committee chair, Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y. "Unfortunately, it appears that you have already decided to pursue a duplicate investigation, including issuing subpoenas, to use the same motive as that dealt with by the special advocate."

In early March, Nadler requested information from 81 people or entities related to the president as part of an extensive investigation to determine whether Trump had abused his power or whether he had acted corruptly.