Former White House counsel was subpoenaed by the House committee investigating the findings of the special counsel

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The White House has informed Congress that it has ordered the former counsel Don McGahn not to hand over documents subpoenaed by a congressional committee investigating the findings of the special counsel Robert Mueller.

In a letter to the House judiciary committee chairman, Jerry Nadler, the White House lawyer Pat Cipollone cited “significant Executive Branch confidentiality interests and executive privilege”.

McGahn’s refusal is sure to set the Trump administration on course for another collision with the Democratic-led House over lawmakers’ pursuit of documents related to the Russia investigation.

In a subpoena, Congress had requested documents from McGahn pertaining to 36 matters, including discrete episodes in the Russia affair ranging from the resignation of the former national security adviser Michael Flynn to the 9 June 2016 Trump Tower meeting.

Cipollone said McGahn “does not have the legal right to disclose these documents to third persons”.

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In a follow-up letter to Congress, a lawyer for McGahn said he intended to follow the White House direction. “Where co-equal branches of government are making contradictory demands on Mr McGahn concerning the same set of documents,” the letter reads, “the appropriate response for Mr McGahn is to maintain the status quo unless and until the committee and the executive branch can reach an accommodation.”

The order came a day after the treasury department denied a congressional request for Donald Trump’s tax returns. Both document denials appeared to be subject to immediate legal challenge by Democrats.

Testimony by McGahn was central to Mueller’s record of conduct by Trump that critics from both parties, including hundreds of former federal prosecutors, have said amounted to felony obstruction of justice.

McGahn told the special counsel that Trump called him in June 2017 asking to pressure the deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, to fire Mueller. Later, Trump asked McGahn to publicly deny any such order had ever been given.

Trump has defied requests from House Democrats since the release of the special counsel’s report last month.

Republicans have largely united behind the president, with the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, on Tuesday declaring “case closed” on Mueller’s Russia investigation and potential obstruction by Trump. McConnell said Democrats are “grieving” the result.

The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, responded to McConnell’s comments in a joint letter on Tuesday, calling McConnell’s “case closed” speech “a stunning act of political cynicism and a brazen violation of the oath we all take”.