The Trump administration has not fully complied with a court order that stops the freezing of foreign assistance subsidies and contracts, a federal judge ruled on Thursday.
Last week, the United States District Judge, Amir Ali, ordered the administration to allow the disbursement of American foreign assistance after listening to claims of federal contractors that defy an executive order signed by President Donald Trump stopping almost All foreign assistance.
Ali determined that a “general suspension of foreign aid assigned by Congress” had caused irreparable damage to contractors and was probably not allowed by virtue of the Administrative Procedure Law.
Earlier this week, the administration said in a compliance notice that the State Department and USAID had reviewed the thousands of contracts and grant them to the cancellation of the freezing of aid and determined that “substantially all” of the terminations were allowed under the terms of the contracts.
In response, Ali suggested on Thursday that the Administration did not completely respect its court order that stopped the freezing of funds and, instead, sought new ways to justify its pause in large amounts of help.
“When ordering the defendants and their agents to implement any directive to carry out said general suspension, the court was not inviting the defendants to continue the suspension while reviewing contracts and legal authorities to produce a new post-hoc rationalization For him mass Suspension, ”Ali wrote.
The judge said that the Trump administration has not yet offered evidence to refute the position that its general suspension of foreign aid will cause irreparable damage or that it has completely considered the implications that the pause could have on the interests that depend on the aid.
“The court is prepared to consider such arguments and evidence in the preliminary court order,” Ali wrote. “However, to the extent that the defendants have continued the general suspension, they are ordered to cease immediately.”
The judge did not stop the administration in contempt.
A White House spokesman did not immediately return a request for comments.
On the day of his second inauguration, Trump signed an executive order that stopped all “foreign development assistance” funds for 90 days. The order ordered all department leaders and federal agencies to immediately pause new obligations and disbursements for help to foreign countries and non -governmental organizations.
The Secretary of State Marco Rubio, days after being confirmed, ordered an immediate stop to almost all foreign assistance financed through the State Department and Usaid.
The case of foreign aid pause is not the first time of his second term that a judge has found that the Trump administration is violating a court order. Earlier this month, a federal judge in Rhode Island ruled that the Trump administration had violated its order to stop a wide freezing of federal funds, which included a pause of foreign aid, but also to national subsidies and loans. The memorandum that promulgates that pause, which came from the Office of Administration and Budget, was rescinded at the end of January.
