Kerry, other former US officials tell court Trump travel ban ‘cannot be justified’

Ten former senior US diplomats and intelligence officials, including recently departed Secretary of State John Kerry and National Security Advisor Susan Rice, have submitted a filing in the high-profile case against Donald Trump’s travel ban arguing the White House order makes the US less safe.

The filing, made early Monday morning in the San Francisco-based appeals court that is hearing the case, states that all of the former officials have “held the highest security clearances” and are “unaware of any specific threat” that would justify the ban.

“In our professional opinion, this order cannot be justified on national security or foreign policy grounds,” the filing reads. “To the contrary, the order disrupts thousands of lives, including those of refugees and visa holders all previously vetted by standing procedures that the administration has not shown to be inadequate.”

In addition to Mr Kerry and Ms Rice, the filers include two other senior officials who were “current on active intelligence regarding all credible terrorist threat streams” a week before the order was issued, they state. Those include Susan Monaco, President Barack Obama’s White House homeland security adviser, and Avril Haines, who was deputy director of the CIA until 2015 and was Ms Rice’s deputy until last month.