A Biden-appointed federal judge ordered President Donald Trump’s administration to follow his previous directive to lift the freeze on foreign aid.
The February 13 order by Judge Amir H. Ali had called on administration officials to temporarily lift the funding ban and restore foreign aid. On Thursday, the judge accused the officials of using the order instead to “come up with a new, post-hoc rationalization” for suspending the foreign aid, according to Fox News.
Ali accused USAID Deputy Secretary Pete Marocco and other officials of having “continued their blanket suspension of funds” after foreign assistance through the U.S. Agency for International Development and the State Department was slashed.
“By enjoining Defendants and their agents from implementing any directives to undertake such blanket suspension, the Court was not inviting Defendants to continue the suspension while they reviewed contracts and legal authorities to come up with a new, post-hoc rationalization for the en masse suspension,” Ali wrote.
“The Court stands prepared to consider such arguments and evidence at the preliminary injunction stage,” the judge wrote. “However, to the extent Defendants have continued the blanket suspension, they are ordered to immediately cease it.”
Nonprofit groups affected by the USAID cuts challenged the administration in the lawsuit but the federal judge declined to hold Trump official in contempt over not following his previous order.
The judge said “contempt is not warranted on the current record and given Defendants’ explicit recognition that ‘prompt compliance with the order’ is required.”
The motion for civil contempt was brought by the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition (AVAC) and Journalism Development Network, Inc. (JDN).
“Even after Ali’s order, USAID staffers and contractors say the State Department and USAID still have not restored payments, even on hundreds of millions of dollars already owed by the government,” Fox News reported.
“Marocco and other administration officials defended the nonpayment in written arguments to the judge this week. They contended that they could lawfully stop or terminate payments under thousands of contracts without violating the judge’s order,” the outlet added.
Cuts to USAID, the Department of Education and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau through the efforts of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have reportedly saved about $55 billion, according to the Elon Musk-led department. But legal challenges have been brought as staffers decried the cuts in interviews and court affidavits.
Meanwhile, the administration is reportedly reviewing programs through USAID and the State Department on a case-by-case basis.
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida. Powers also contributes to BizPac Review.
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