Congress has no right to conduct a “do-over” of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia interference in the 2016 US election, the White House has said, in a letter blasting House Democrats’ “sweeping” requests for documents as an effort to harass political opponents.

The letter dated 15 May from the White House counsel Pat Cipollone to the House judiciary committee chair, Jerry Nadler, takes the view that the committee’s investigation serves no legitimate legislative purpose.

He also questioned whether the House investigation is a “legitimate exercise of oversight authority” and says the White House will “resist the overbroad demands”.

The letter was drafted in response to Nadler’s 4 March request for documents from the White House for a congressional investigation of allegations of obstruction of justice, public corruption and other abuses of power.

Democrats are clashing with the justice department over access to Mueller’s full report. The judiciary panel voted to hold the attorney general, William Barr, in contempt of Congress after he defied the committee’s subpoena for an unredacted version of the report.

Cipollone asked the committee to narrow its “sweeping” request and provide a legislative purpose, and said many documents would be entitled to be withheld under executive privilege.

“The White House will not participate in the committee’s ‘investigation’ that brushes aside the conclusions of the Department of Justice after a two-year-long effort in favor of political theater pre-ordained to reach a preconceived and false result,” Cipollone’s 12-page letter said.

A spokesman for Nadler did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The documents requested by the committee relate to everything from the contents of Trump’s meetings with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, to his communications with the former White House counsel Donald McGahn, the firing of the former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn and the former FBI director James Comey, and possible pardons for Trump associates who pleaded guilty to crimes stemming from the investigation.

In addition, the committee is seeking documents aimed at investigating whether Trump has used the White House to enrich himself in violation of the constitution’s emoluments clause.

In his 448-page redacted report released last month, Mueller described numerous links between Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and various Russians, but concluded there was insufficient evidence to move forward with a criminal case over the campaign’s engagement with Moscow.

It also described attempts by Trump to impede Mueller’s investigation, but stopped short of declaring Trump committed a crime.

Reuters and the Associated Press