58 ex-national security officials

58 ex-national security officials to denounce Trump’s emergency declaration

By QUINT FORGEY and ANITA KUMAR

President Donald Trump — already facing opposition on his national emergency declaration from House Democrats and a collection of state attorneys general — will on Monday have to contend with a rebuke by a bipartisan group of 58 former national security officials denouncing the White House’s directive.

In a 13-page joint statement by various diplomats, intelligence chiefs, Cabinet secretaries and senior government personnel from previous administrations, the former civil servants said they “are aware of no emergency that remotely justifies” Trump’s invocation of emergency powers on Feb. 15, according to a copy of the document obtained by POLITICO.

“The President’s actions are at odds with the overwhelming evidence in the public record, including the administration’s own data and estimates,” the former officials said.

“We have lived and worked through national emergencies, and we support the President’s power to mobilize the Executive Branch to respond quickly in genuine national emergencies. But under no plausible assessment of the evidence is there a national emergency today that entitles the President to tap into funds appropriated for other purposes to build a wall at the southern border.”

Among the statement’s most prominent signatories are former Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright and John Kerry and former Defense Secretaries Chuck Hagel and Leon Panetta.

Also on the list are former CIA Director John Brennan, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former National Security Adviser Thomas Donilon, former Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection Gil Kerlikowske, former NATO Ambassador R. Nicholas Burns, former Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, longtime U.S. ambassador Ryan Crocker, and former Ambassadors to the United Nations Thomas Pickering, Samantha Power and Susan Rice.

The statement, which was first reported on by The Washington Post, will be made public and entered into the Congressional Record on Monday, one day before the House is expected to pass legislation that would reverse Trump’s emergency order. The Senate will then be forced to vote on the measure within 18 days, and several of the chamber’s Republicans have already expressed unease with the president’s decision to circumvent lawmakers.

The White House has indicated Trump will veto the resolution of disapproval if it clears Congress and reaches the president’s desk.

A coalition of 16 states filed suit on Feb. 18 to block the president’s national emergency declaration, calling the maneuver a “flagrant disregard of fundamental separation of powers principles.” Public Citizen, a liberal advocacy group, has also filed a suit challenging Trump’s decision, and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics has filed a motion against the Department of Justice demanding documents pertaining to the legal justification of the declaration.

Trump declared a national emergency at the southern border earlier this month after signing a bipartisan government funding bill allocating $