Trump mulling new immigration order

US President Donald Trump said Friday he is considering drafting a new order to ban migrants from majority-Muslim nations after his initial decree fell afoul of the law.

Insisting that he has the law on his side despite two defeats in federal court in quick succession, Trump said security concerns may necessitate a quicker response than legal channels would allow.

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"The unfortunate part is that it takes time statutorily, but we will win that battle. We also have a lot of other options, including just filing a brand new order," he said, adding that any action would not come before next week.

The statement came as reports said US intelligence officials have confirmed some aspects of the “Russia dossier” that rocked Washington a month ago. However, those aspects of the dossier that have been confirmed do not relate directly to Trump.

Last month, it emerged that Trump and Barack Obama had been briefed by US intelligence officials about aspects of a 35-page dossier that was circulating in journalistic and government circles. The dossier made a series of unverified claims about Trump's personal and financial dealings in Russia - claims he dismissed as false.

The statement on immigration represents an embarrassing climbdown for Trump, who has insisted that the order was well drafted and who has nevertheless vowed to fight on in the courts.

"We need speed for reasons of security, so it very well could be," Trump said when asked if his plan was to have a new measure drafted.

Trump said Friday at a joint press conference with visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that as president, he has learned of "tremendous threats to our country."

"We'll be going forward and continuing to do things to make our country safe. It will happen rapidly," he told reporters.

"We will not allow people into our country who are looking to do harm," he said. "We will allow lots of people into our country that will love our people and do good for our country."

Trump's executive order issued in late January summarily denied entry to all refugees for 120 days, and travelers from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days. Refugees from Syria were blocked indefinitely.

The White House has not provided any evidence to support Trump's view that a ban on travelers from the seven countries was urgently needed.

An appellate court decided unanimously on Thursday to maintain a block on Trump's order put in place by a lower court judge a week before.

The debacle has raised questions about the competence of Trump's White House in working through the practical and legal implications of the order.

After first suggesting a quick appeal to the Supreme Court was off the table, US officials reversed course, insisting a legal challenge had not been dropped, including a possible motion to the high court.

Nevertheless, an appeal on the temporary freeze in the lower courts now seems unlikely.

The measure -- given with no notice -- set off detentions of incoming travelers, protests at airports and international condemnation until a federal judge in Seattle stepped in and suspended the order a week later.

In upholding the suspension, the US court of appeals in San Francisco said Thursday the government had provided no evidence that any alien from the countries named in the order had carried out a terrorist attack on US soil.

"We hold that the government has not shown a likelihood of success on the merits of its appeal, nor has it shown that failure to enter a stay would cause irreparable injury," the three-judge appellate panel ruled.

Trump's initial reaction came minutes later on Twitter: "SEE YOU IN COURT, THE SECURITY OF OUR NATION IS AT STAKE!"

He followed up early Friday with a tweet calling the court's ruling "a disgraceful decision!"

On Friday, CNN, which was first to break news of the briefing to Trump and Obama, said intelligence officials had confirmed some aspects of the damaging Russia dossier, which were initially collected by a former British intelligence agent, Christopher Steele. He collected it as opposition research for Trump's opponents - Republicans and then Democrats - during the presidential campaign.

It said the elements that had been confirmed were several conversations in the dossier involving foreign nationals. None of the conversations involved Trump or members of his team.

It also said that intelligence officials had at this stage, neither confirmed or disproved any of the more salacious claims included in the dossier, which was published in full by BuzzFeed and several other news outlets.

"We continue to be disgusted by CNN's fake news reporting," White House press secretary Sean Spicer said.

Spicer's comment hearkens back to Trump's disavowal of the story earlier this year, conflating both CNN's reported story in January and BuzzFeed's release of the full documents.

"I win an election easily, a great 'movement' is verified, and crooked opponents try to belittle our victory with FAKE NEWS. A sorry state!" he tweeted. "Intelligence agencies should never have allowed this fake news to 'leak' into the public. One last shot at me. Are we living in Nazi Germany?"

Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper expressed his "profound dismay" at the leak, which was circulated by politicians, intelligence officials, and journalists for weeks before the report.

Clapper said that both he and trump "agreed that [the leaks] are extremely corrosive and damaging to our national security."