WASHINGTON – A federal judge stated on Tuesday that the dissolution of the U.S. Agency for International Development probably breached the Constitution. The judge also halted billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency from making any further reductions to the agency.
In Maryland, U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang mandated the Trump administration to reinstate email and computer privileges to all USAID staff members, even those who were put on administrative leave.
Musk was specifically named as a defendant under the interim restraining order in the lawsuit. The request for the order was made by attorneys representing USAID employees and subcontractors.
In February, the Trump administration placed all but a fraction of USAID’s worldwide staff on leave and notified at least 1,600 of its U.S.-based staffers they were being fired. The effort to gut the six-decade-old aid agency was part of a broader push to cancel billions of dollars in foreign spending.
Trump on Inauguration Day issued an executive order directing a freeze of foreign assistance funding and a review of all U.S. aid and development work abroad. Trump charged that much of foreign assistance was wasteful and advanced a liberal agenda.
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