The White House will neither confirm nor deny reports that Homeland Security secretary John Kelly was not briefed beforehand on last Friday’s executive order banning travel from citizens of seven Muslim countries.
“All appropriate agencies and individuals that needed to be part of the process were,” said White House press secretary Sean Spicer on Monday. “Everybody was kept in the loop at the level necessary to ensure that we rolled it out properly.”
Several news organizations have reported that Kelly was not fully briefed on the executive order until Friday. As the New York Times reported, Kelly watched President Trump sign the order in the middle of his briefing. The White House also did not ask the department for a legal review of the order, according to the Times.
Asked if Kelly was among those who were “kept in the loop” during the drafting of the order, White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said she would not comment one way or another on who was involved.
Both Sanders and Spicer cited concerns about announcing the executive order ahead of time. “If we had announced it a lot earlier, it would have given people plenty of time to flood into the country who could have done some harm. So the people that needed to be kept in the loop were kept in the loop, and the people that needed to be briefed were,” Spicer said.
Requests for comment from DHS officials have not yet been returned.
