text: Senior staffers on the House Judiciary Committee helped Donald Trump's top aides draft the executive order curbing immigration from seven Muslim-majority nations, but the Republican committee chairman and party leadership were not informed, according to multiple sources involved in the process. 
   
   The news of their involvement helps unlock the mystery of whether the White House consulted Capitol Hill about the executive order, one of many questions raised in the days after it was unveiled on Friday. It confirms that the small group of staffers were among the only people on Capitol Hill who knew of the looming controversial policy. 
   
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   Kathryn Rexrode, the House Judiciary Committee’s communications director, declined to comment about the aides’ work. A Judiciary Committee aide said Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) was not "consulted by the administration on the executive order." 
   
   "Like other congressional committees, some staff of the House Judiciary Committee were permitted to offer their policy expertise to the Trump transition team about immigration law," a House Judiciary Committee aide said in a statement. "However, the Trump Administration is responsible for the final policy decisions contained in the executive order and its subsequent roll-out and implementation.” 
   
   The work of the committee aides began during the transition period after the election and before Donald Trump was sworn in. The staffers signed nondisclosure agreements, according to two sources familiar with the matter. Trump's transition operation forced its staff to sign these agreements, but it would be unusual to extend that requirement to congressional employees. Rexrode declined to comment on the nondisclosure pacts. 
   
   It’s extremely rare for administration officials to circumvent Republican leadership and work directly with congressional committee aides. But the House Judiciary Committee has some of the most experienced staffers when it comes to immigration policy. 
   
   
   
   
   
   GOP leaders received no advance warning or briefings from the White House or Judiciary staff on what the executive order would do or how it would be implemented — briefings they still had not received as of Sunday night. Leaders including Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) only saw the final language when reporters received it Friday night, according to multiple Hill sources. 
   
   Rather, Republicans on the Hill spent the entire weekend scrambling to find out what was going on, who was involved and how it was that they were caught so flat-footed. 
   
   "Their coordination with the Hill was terrible," said one senior GOP source on the Hill, who seemed flabbergasted that congressional Republicans didn’t receive talking points from the White House on the executive order until late Saturday night, about 24 hours after President Donald Trump signed it. “We didn't see the final language until it was actually out.” 
   
   The fumbled roll-out serves as a cautionary tale to Trump officials who decide to go it alone in enacting controversial policies without help from Congress. Indeed, the lack of consultation has set off a wave of resentment on Capitol Hill. GOP insiders believe that the White House and Goodlatte staffers could have avoided the drama that unfolded over the weekend had they looped in relevant lawmakers on the front end. 
   
   The episode also has instilled a wariness among GOP aides about the White House. 
   
   “These executive orders were very rushed and drafted by a very tight-knit group of individuals who did not run it by the people who have to execute the policy. And because that’s the case, they probably didn’t think of or care about how this would be executed in the real world,” said another congressional source familiar with the situation. “No one was given a heads-up and no one had a chance to weigh in on it.” 
   
   Insiders told POLITICO that the botched roll-out of the immigration executive order was coordinated for the most part by White House policy director Stephen Miller, a former Sessions staffer, and Trump senior strategist Stephen Bannon. 
   
   It was intentionally kept quiet. Even key administration officials had not seen it until "just before it was going out," according to one White House source. 
   
   A Judiciary Committee aide said Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) was not "consulted by the administration on the executive order." | AP Photo 
   
   Since the staffers did not inform Republican leaders about their work, Hill leaders and the House Homeland Security panels were never given the chance to vet the order for potential problems — such as the issue with green card holders that caused authorized U.S. immigrants to be threatened with deportation at airports. 
   
   Even supporters of the administration believe the administration erred in its lack of communication. Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Trump ally, speculated that the administration could have given "people a heads up a week or so out and get them on the same page.” But he cautioned that the administration is “understaffed and Trump is impatient,” and the White House has a natural learning curve. 
   
   “They could have waited a couple days, and they would have done better,” Gingirich said. "I think some of this stuff is they're learning how to roller skate. They can't understand in advance, they have to do it for the first time.” 
   
   When the order first came down Friday, and reports of problems started to surface, lawmakers frantically called leadership offices and committees staff to ask how to respond. That’s when GOP leadership staffers moved to do damage control — even as the administration ignored their requests for briefings and more information. Frustrated by the administration’s lack of communication to reporters on what the executive order did and didn’t do, they tried to pick up the slack by emphasizing that the ban was not a prohibition on Muslims. 
   
   “We were trying to clean up their damage," a senior Republican source said. "The thing was getting totally mischaracterized. The way it was implemented was screwing over a lot of people." 
   
   The White House has now dispatched aides to speak with Capitol Hill staffers before they make policy moves, a person familiar with the matter said. Boris Epshteyn, a senior aide, attended such a meeting Monday. 
   
   Homeland Security Director John Kelly is expected to visit Capitol Hill on Tuesday and has told others he was "kept totally out of the loop," one person familiar with his comments said. 
   
   Hill Republicans on Monday were privately simmering that administration officials didn’t seek out their expertise. Most Trump officials lack policy chops and Washington know-how, they argued, and Republicans said they could have been helpful. 
   
   One senior GOP aide said that they generally understood Trump's goals to limit immigration, “but we're getting tired of all the chaos.” 
   
   ||||| White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, left, speaks Saturday with White House chief strategist Steve Bannon in the Oval office as President Trump speaks on the phone with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images) 
   
   The fallout Monday from President Trump’s sweeping immigration order exposed painful rifts within the Republican Party, alarmed members of his Cabinet and fueled suspicions among his top advisers. 
   
   That left the defiant commander in chief stewing over who was to blame — capped by Trump’s remarkable decision late Monday to fire the acting attorney general because she refused to enforce the order as potentially unlawful. 
   
   For all the promises of Republican bonhomie, Trump and his aides kept GOP congressional leaders almost completely in the dark about the most consequential act of his young presidency: a temporary ban on refugees and on anyone from seven majority-Muslim nations. 
   
   Defense Secretary James Mattis and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly fumed privately to associates over the weekend because they had been caught unaware by a travel ban that was drafted and set into action largely in secret by the White House, according to three people who have spoken with them. 
   
   Inside the West Wing, tensions flared as differences in management style emerged between two factions: one led by chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon and senior policy adviser Stephen Miller, who wrote the immigration order, and the other composed of Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and his deputies, who are accustomed to operating with a more traditional chain of command. 
   
   (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post) 
   
   Miller, 31, was the public face of the order and the populist wing of the White House over the weekend, directing department and agency chiefs as well as explaining and defending the move in television interviews. 
   
   As it became evident that the rollout of the executive order bordered between clumsy and dysfunctional, people in Trump’s orbit divided over who was at fault, with some blaming Miller. Others said it was Priebus who should have taken charge of better coordinating with the departments and communicating with lawmakers and the public. 
   
   “The problem they’ve got is this is an off-Broadway performance of a show that is now the number one hit on Broadway,” said former House speaker Newt Gingrich, an informal adviser to Trump. 
   
   [The first days inside Trump’s White House: Fury, tumult and a reboot] 
   
   The infighting spilled into public view Monday morning on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” Host Joe Scarborough, who spent part of Sunday visiting Trump at the White House, looked into the camera and directly challenged Miller. 
   
   “This weekend was a disgrace and it’s all on your shoulders,” Scarborough intoned. 
   
   His commentary was all but certain to be noticed by the president himself; Trump is such an avid watcher of the show that when Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) recently appeared, he received a congratulatory call from Trump just moments later. 
   
   1 of 23 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Protest at New York’s JFK airport against Trump’s order halting refu­gee admissions View Photos Entry to the United States is being refused to legal residents, including green-card holders, from seven mostly Muslim countries who were abroad when the executive order was signed Friday by the president, and some travelers were detained at U.S. airports. Caption Entry to the United States is being refused to legal residents, including green-card holders, from seven mostly Muslim countries who were abroad when the executive order was signed Friday by the president. Jan. 28, 2017 People protest the Muslim immigration ban at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. President Trump signed an executive order that halted refugees and residents from certain predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States. Stephanie Keith/Getty Images Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. 
   
   Scarborough’s monologue encapsulated many of the hallmarks of the new White House: It was direct, passionate and provocative, and it played out on live television. 
   
   Scarborough’s analysis aligned with a faction of the West Wing that has grown concerned about the ascent of Miller and Bannon, close partners in driving Trump to make good on his most populist and nationalistic campaign promises, however incendiary. 
   
   One area of heated debate is the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which grants legal protection to undocumented immigrants who are brought to the United States as children — commonly known as “dreamers.” Hard-line conservatives have been urging Trump to rescind DACA, while other advisers, including Gingrich, are counseling him to keep it in place and avoid a politically treacherous confrontation, according to people involved in the deliberations. 
   
   “Why pick a fight over this group of people who have a lot of emotional stories to tell? It’s not realistic. It’s not practical,” Gingrich said. “I strongly agree with the general direction we’re going, but I think this particular fight doesn’t emotionally make any sense.” 
   
   In many ways, Trump’s leading advisers are simply operating within the power parameters the president established. Some officials — Bannon and Miller chief among them — are actively shaping policy and guiding the president’s decisions. Others — such as Priebus, the deputy chiefs of staff and White House press secretary Sean Spicer — function in a more reactive capacity, left trying to find order in chaos and explain away slapdash actions. 
   
   The Priebus-Bannon relationship has had its warm moments. When Priebus’s wife was recently baptized into the Greek Orthodox Church, Bannon attended the reception. 
   
   The competing power dynamic appears to have made Priebus, in particular, suspicious of his colleagues’ motives, especially as Bannon asserts his influence, according to several people with knowledge of the situation. 
   
   “A little bit of under-competence and a slight amount of insecurity can breed some paranoia and backstabbing,” one White House official, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly, said of Priebus. “We have to get Reince to relax into the job and become more competent, because he’s seeing shadows where there are no shadows.” 
   
   During the transition phase, for instance, Priebus maneuvered to sideline perceived threats. He suggested that Anthony Scaramucci, a prominent New York financier who is close to Trump and Bannon, serve outside the administration, as finance chairman of the Republican National Committee, according to two people aware of the discussions. 
   
   But Scaramucci demurred, opting for a senior White House job directing the Office of Public Liaison and Intergovernmental Affairs, a similar role to the one played by Valerie Jarrett in the Obama White House. 
   
   White House officials reject the notion that chaos has overshadowed the early days of Trump’s presidency. They say the media refuse to acknowledge his achievements and intentionally tried to stoke public dissent, even hysteria, with reports about the immigration order. 
   
   “While false narratives circulate, the White House staff is busy working, together, to implement President Trump’s agenda for the betterment of our country,” said a White House spokesman who was not authorized to speak on the record. 
   
   Trump fired off angry tweets attacking the media and lawmakers who criticized his ban, from mocking Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) for his “tears” to labeling Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) “sadly weak.” 
   
   Late Monday evening, Trump fired acting attorney general Sally Yates, who had instructed Justice Department lawyers not to defend Trump’s immigration order. The White House said in a statement that Yates had “betrayed” the Justice Department and called her “very weak on illegal immigration.” 
   
   Privately, the president seethed, venting about what he saw as unfair news coverage on a second straight weekend of mass protests, and quizzing confidants about their impressions of how his senior staffers were performing. 
   
   [Donald Trump waits in his tower — accessible, yet isolated] 
   
   As the controversy swirled, Trump, who has taken to giving visitors mini-tours of his new residence, found comfort in a trio of loyalists who share a room just steps from the Oval Office — Hope Hicks, the spokeswoman who has been at Trump’s side since before his campaign launch; Johnny McEntee, a former college football quarterback who is now the president’s personal aide; and Keith Schiller, a retired New York police officer and head of Trump’s personal security detail who now directs Oval Office operations. 
   
   Nonetheless, some of Trump’s friends as well as his critics fear that his agenda may be compromised by mismanagement. 
   
   “Frankly, when I look at this, I think he was ill-served by his staff,” said Ohio Gov. John Kasich, one of Trump’s primary rivals. “If I were the president, I’d be very upset with the staff — that they didn’t say, ‘Hey, wait, hold on a second.’ Because that’s what executives do. They have people around them that help them to understand, ‘Hey, your message is fine but here is what’s going to come from it.’ ” 
   
   On Capitol Hill, many Republicans close to leadership were frustrated that they received little to no guidance, or advance notice, about Trump’s immigration and refu­gee directive. One top House office said it was able to glean the president’s plan only through unofficial back channels to the Department of Homeland Security. 
   
   Asked if he was consulted in drafting the order, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Tex.) replied simply, “I wasn’t” — an echo of Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), who told reporters Monday that the White House had not briefed him before signing the order. 
   
   The first substantive guidance to congressional Republicans came late Saturday — well after protesters had descended on the nation’s airports — in a two-page memo that offered some details on the policy but, to the chagrin of several Capitol Hill aides, very little political guidance. At the end was a pledge for the secretary of state to report regularly on “victims of female genital mutilation or honor killing by foreign-born nationals.” 
   
   It was not only Trump’s immigration order that rankled official Washington. His presidential memorandum that restructured the National Security Council to elevate Bannon to a seat on the Principals Committee, alongside the secretaries of state and defense, worried many in the national security community. Also concerning was language suggesting that the director of national intelligence and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff could only attend certain Principals Committee meetings. 
   
   But Spicer told reporters Monday that Trump was revising the directive to also include the director of the Central Intelligence Agency. And he insisted that the DNI and Joint Chiefs chairman would be included in any Principals Committee meeting they wish to attend. 
   
   The confusion out of the White House about the president’s intentions left some of the government’s most decorated officials scrambling to assert their relevance. Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs, took the unusual step of issuing a statement to emphasize that he will “fully participate” in giving the president military advice. 
   
   “I remain honored and humbled to represent the extraordinary men and women of the Joint Force in serving the president and our nation,” Dunford wrote. 
   
   Karen DeYoung, Kelsey Snell and Sean Sullivan contributed to this report. ||||| WASHINGTON — Senior Republican lawmakers who work on national security issues, including the entire members of both Homeland Security committees, were not informed of "red flag" changes made to a draft of Donald Trump's recent controversial executive order on immigration until hours after the president signed it, sources says. 
   
   
   
   This version of Friday's events appears to contradict, at least partially, what the White House has said about congressional involvement in drafting and reviewing the executive order before it was signed. A senior administration official initially said over the weekend that "top immigration experts on Capitol Hill" drafted the executive action. "Republicans on Capitol Hill wrote it," the official told pool reporters on Sunday. 
   
   White House spokesperson Sean Spicer doubled down on congressional involvement during a press briefing on Monday. Asked about Capitol Hill staff who say they weren't briefed on the executive order, Spicer turned the question back on reporters: "535 offices, plus territories, you talked to them all?" 
   
   "As was told to you last night, there were staff from appropriate committees and leadership offices that were involved," Spicer said. 
   
   However, many Republican and Democratic members were not briefed on the final version of the executive order before Trump signed it on Friday, including the entire House Homeland Security committee and at least some members of the Senate Homeland Security committee. 
   
   "The House Homeland Security committee was not consulted on the final draft of the executive order," said a GOP aide. 
   
   
   
   And while some Republican members have said that the order is similar to legislation passed by the House last year after the Paris attacks, it includes new language on current US green card and visa holders that shocked many members of Congress. 
   
   "Total BS," a senior Republican aide familiar with the matter said in response to Spicer's assertion Monday that the "appropriate committees" were briefed on the order. "We got an eleventh-hour phone call the day of to let us know it was about to happen. Precisely zero formal consultation before that, just like [the Department of Homeland Security] itself." 
   
   
   
   Sen. Rob Portman, a member of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, criticized the lack of scrutiny given to the order before it was signed, saying on CNN this weekend that "an extreme vetting program that wasn't properly vetted." His spokesman Kevin Smith told BuzzFeed News in an email Monday that "Senator Portman and his staff were not consulted about the EO in advance of its rollout." 
   
   Similarly, Sen. Bob Corker, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was not consulted or briefed on the order, an aide confirmed on Monday. "I think they understand that this was not handled in the most productive manner," Corker told Bloomberg. 
   
   The senior Republican aide familiar with the matter said that while some lawmakers had seen an early draft of the order, they were blindsided by the contents of the final version and did not see it until it was made public Friday night. 
   
   "Friday we were operating under the assumption that the draft executive order that had circulated earlier in the week was going to reflect the final version," the source said. "There didn't appear to be too many issues." 
   
   But "it was hours" before members and staff saw the final version of the executive action signed Friday by Trump "because coordination was so poor," the aide added. 
   
   "By the time we digested the changes and reviewed the final order, it was clear there were serious shortcomings and problems," the source said. 
   
   One of the problems for some Republican members is the fact that the ban was being used to halt people with valid US visas and green cards at US airports over the weekend, instead of just temporarily stopping the issuance of new visas, which the source called a "major red flag." 
   
   "It was chaotic and very uncoordinated and it caused not only a lot of concern and problems on Capitol Hill, it caused obviously a big PR backlash for the administration," the first Republican aide said. "They seemed to sit and watch for about 48 hours before they decided to come out" and clarify that green card holders and permanent residents weren't included in the ban. 
   
   "It was a total cluster [...] It was a complete cluster and the organization and the coordination really needs to improve dramatically and quickly," the aide added. 
   
   Democrats on the two Homeland Security committees were apparently not briefed on the executive order either, two Democratic sources said. One Senate Democratic office said they were given a draft of the order early on by an "advocacy group," which the aide declined to identify, but noted, as Republicans did, that the draft they saw was significantly different from what Trump signed. It's unclear if the draft viewed by Democrats was the same one that Republicans viewed. 
   
   “We got no notice. We got no briefing, we got nothing from the administration," the Democratic aide said. 
   
   The executive order that Trump signed Friday halted travel to the US for citizens of Iran, Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Libya, and Yemen. It also suspended the US refugee program for four months and indefinitely halted the resettlement of Syrian refugees in the US. 
   
   After the executive order was signed, border agents detained more than 100 people — including US green card holders and small children — at airports across the US, prompting protests in more than a dozen major cities. 
   
   
   
   Republicans on Capitol Hill began publicly criticizing Trump's executive order as public outcry amplified throughout the weekend. On Sunday evening, House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul issued a statement saying "it is clear adjustments are needed" after telling cable news channels on Friday that Trump's executive orders made it "a safer day for America." 
   
   "In the future, such policy changes should be better coordinated with the agencies implementing them and with Congress to ensure we get it right—and don’t undermine our nation’s credibility while trying to restore it,” McCaul said in the Sunday statement. 
   
   The New York Times reported that Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly was only briefed on the executive order as Trump signed it. 
   
   The White House has continued to defend the ban, claiming it will protect the country against terrorists, despite global confusion about how it should be interpreted and court orders seeking to overturn it. Trump tweeted on Saturday that the US "needs strong borders and extreme vetting, NOW." 
   
   Countries whose dual citizens would be affected were left scrambling over the weekend as well. In Canada, for instance — where at least 35,000 people share nationality with one of the seven banned countries — the prime minister's national security advisor said first learned of Trump's executive order in the media. 
   
   Sarah Mimms contributed to this report.
target: – President Trump has been accused of signing off on a legally flawed immigration order crafted without congressional input, but according to Politico's sources, his team did have some help on Capitol Hill—they just couldn't tell their bosses about the order. The sources say aides on the House Judicial Committee helped the Trump team draft the executive order between the election and his swearing-in, but they were required to sign nondisclosure agreements and Republican leaders were not informed. In a statement, a committee aide said they had been permitted "to offer their policy expertise," but Trump was responsible for the "final policy decisions contained in the executive order and its subsequent roll-out and implementation." Some senior Republican lawmakers saw a draft version of the order early last week, insiders tell BuzzFeed, but they were left in the dark about major changes, which meant even legal US residents were blocked from entering the country, until after the order was signed. "It was chaotic and very uncoordinated and it caused not only a lot of concern and problems on Capitol Hill, it caused obviously a big PR backlash for the administration," one GOP aide says. According to the Washington Post's sources, the bungled rollout has exposed not just a rift between the White House and congressional Republicans, but between different factions in the White House itself, with many unhappy with Steve Bannon's disregard for tradition. "The problem they’ve got is this is an off-Broadway performance of a show that is now the number one hit on Broadway," says Newt Gingrich.