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Top Republican congressional leaders rushed to defend the Trump administration Tuesday after it was revealed that the White House directed GOP Hill staffers to not divulge the details of the extreme vetting and refugee ban they helped draft.

After a weekend of chaos over President Trumps controversial travel ban on seven majority Muslim nations and the resettlement of war refugees into the U.S., it became apparent that several pertinent committees, agencies and leaders were left out of the loop prior to the executive orders immediate implementation on Friday. But as Politico reported late Monday, at least one particular group was consulted beforehand.

Some staff of the House Judiciary Committee were permitted to offer their policy expertise to the Trump transition team about immigration law, but only after they were sworn to complete secrecy even keeping their own bosses in the dark.

OnTuesday, House Speaker Paul Ryan remained unfazed andbrushed offthe reports of the Trump administration circumventing GOP leadership to consult Republican legislative staffers.

Congressional staffers help the administration all the time, Ryan said, before directing further questions to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Virginia.

Asked about the remarkable situation in which his staffers were reportedly better briefed on a major immigration shift than he was, Goodlatte defended the Trumps administration on Tuesday.

My staff on the House Judiciary Committee are some of the best on Capitol Hill. They are experts in their respective fields and I proudly allowed them to provide their expertise to the Trump transition team on immigration law, Goodlatte said in a statement.

To be clear, while they gave advice to the new Administration, they did not have decision making authority on the policy. The final decision was made at the highest levels of the Trump Administration, and I support the Presidents executive order.

Major questions still remain about Goodlattes staffs involvement in the executive order specifically if he signed off on the reported NDAs.

The White Houses handling of the executive order has prompted calls from Capitol Hill that Trumps team needs to do a better job going forward of coordinating strategy and messaging.

I think we need to work on better communication, said House GOP Conference Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers,R-Washington, said on Monday.

Trumps order immediately caused confusion and protests at airports as even legal permanent residents of the US, who held green cards, were detained and denied entry at ports of entry.

Representative Michael McCaul of Texas, the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, did not receive advance notice of the executive order.

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 dont undermine our nations credibility while trying to restore it, he said in a statement.

It would have been smarter to coordinate with us, Representative Dave Brat of Virginia, a Trump ally, told the Atlantic on Monday. They could have done a better job announcing how the complexities were going to work in advance.

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Republican leaders proudly defend Trump poaching congressional staffers to help draft refugee ban - Salon