The decision to shelve detailed advice from the nation’s top disease control experts for reopening communities during the coronavirus pandemic came from the highest levels of the White House.

That's according to internal government emails and documents obtained by The Associated Press. The files also show that after the AP reported Thursday that the document had been buried, the Trump administration ordered key parts of it to be fast-tracked for approval.

The emails show experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spending weeks working on guidance to help the country deal with the emergency, only to see their work quashed by political appointees with little explanation.