The Trump administration said in a presentation of the Court on Wednesday that it cannot comply with the order of a federal judge to release foreign aid funds at midnight, despite having the order to do so almost two weeks ago.
The lawyers of the Department of Justice made the claim in documents submitted to a Federal Appeals Court that sought a suspension of the lower court ruling. The presentation said that if the Court of Appeals of the DCUS circuit does not stop the order, the Government will not be able to make the deadline because it will take “weeks” to release the money it owes.
“[R]However, if this court remains in the order of the District Court, the agency’s leadership has determined that ordered payments cannot be achieved in the time assigned by the District Court, “said his presentation.
“Additional time is required because the restart of the funds related to the finished or suspended agreements is not as simple as lighting a switch or tap. Rather, the USAID payment systems and the State are complicated and require several steps before the payments are authorized,” said the government in another presentation, estimating the process would take “multiple weeks.”
The government estimated that the total amount of money that would have to be released to meet approximately $ 2 billion. He said he hopes to release approximately $ 15 million at the end of the day.
The US district judge, Amir Ali, established the deadline of midnight after the aid groups and companies argued that the State Department and the United States International Development Agency had not fulfilled its February 13 order that immediately blocked a general freezing in foreign aid. The judge ordered the government to fulfill two other orders last week.
At a hearing on Tuesday, the lawyers of the help groups said that their clients had reached a point of crisis and had been forced to fire employees, while employees faced legal threats, and in some physical cases, due to lack of payment of suppliers and other creditors in some of the countries in which they operate.
The judge asked a lawyer from the Department of Justice about the steps that the Government had taken to fulfill his order, and the lawyer said that “he was not able to answer that question.”
Ali then established the deadline on Wednesday night.
The Government asked him to remain his order while appealing to the Superior Court, a request that the judge rejected in an early order on Wednesday that questioned the statement of the government that would need weeks to comply.
“This is not something that the defendants have previously raised in this court, either at the hearing or at any time before presenting their appeal warning and seeking a pending appeal,” he wrote.
“If the defendants wanted to propose a different schedule to achieve compliance, that is something that they could have proposed to this court and that the court could have considered together with the presentations of the plaintiffs. Any schedule of this type should take into account that the defendants have already had almost two weeks to comply, apparently without taking significant measures to not defend funds,” added the judge.
The help groups urged the appeal panel not to remain in the Ali ruling.
“By stopping the disbursements to the plaintiffs (US companies and non -profit organizations, even for the work they had already done, and that had already been reviewed and authorized for the payment, the financing froze the plaintiffs in sudden financial agitation. death”.
The groups also said the government statement that it would take so long to release the “belief of beggars” in cash.
“For twelve days, the defendants have open and challenged the unequivocal temporary restriction order of the District Court,” they said, “and added that” it does not make sense that the State Department and the USAID, that they have not had timely disbursements for decades before the illegal funds freeze, now they could not do it, but they could not do it, but for the deliberate efforts of the defense. Halt -Haltments before the illegal funds freeze, “now I could not do it, but for defenders of defenders to payments to the halt of the decades.” ”
“The defendants have erected numerous new barriers to comply with each step. This conduct cannot be explained as anything other than the intentional challenge of the court orders,” said the plaintiffs in another presentation.
The Department of Justice argues that it complies with the judge’s order. He said Wednesday that Ali had addressed the “blanket” nature of the freezing of funds, and since then the State Department and Usaid had made an individualized evaluation of good faith and individualized of [each] Contract or subsidy and, when the terms or authority according to the law allow, take measures regarding that particular agreement consisting of any procedure required. ”
“As of this morning, this process has been completed for USAID and the State Department” and Secretary of State Marco Rubio “has now made a final decision with respect to each award, individually, choosing affirmatively retaining the prize or finishing it.”
The presentation puts the total number of awards that were reviewed in more than 12,000, and said that more than 10,000 of them had been completed.
The plaintiffs described the statement that Rubio reviewed all those crazy awards.
“It would be impossible for a person or even a group of people significantly review all these contracts and awards in such a short period,” they said. They have asked to call Rubio as a witness at a hearing in the case next week, a request that the government says it should be rejected.
“[T]The officials of the OP Executive Department should not, in the absence of extraordinary circumstances, be called to testify about their reasons for official measures, ”said the government.
Ali’s orders marked the second time that a judge determined that the Administration did not comply with a court order. Earlier this month, a federal judge at Rhode Island found that officials were not following their directive to raise a broader expenses. The findings generated concern that the administration would not follow the judicial orders, the concerns that were exacerbated by a publication on social networks earlier this month of the vice president JD Vance, who wrote: “The judges cannot control the legitimate power of the Executive.”
Speaking to journalists at the Oval office earlier this month, Trump said his administration would follow judicial orders. “Always match the courts. Always steel with them, and we’ll appeal,” he said.
