NEWSMAX | Published February 27, 2025
The Supreme Court on Wednesday temporarily blocked a judge’s order giving the Trump administration an 11:59 deadline to release billions of dollars in U.S. foreign aid.
Chief Justice John Roberts said the order issued by U.S. District Judge Amir H. Ali will remain on hold until the high court has a chance to weigh in more fully.
Ali had ordered the federal government to comply with his decision temporarily blocking a freeze on foreign aid, ruling in a lawsuit filed by nonprofit groups and businesses. An appellate panel refused the administration’s request to intervene.
The federal government froze foreign assistance after an executive order from President Donald Trump targeting what he called wasteful programs that do not correspond to his foreign policy goals.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
The Trump administration said Wednesday it is eliminating more than 90% of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s foreign aid contracts and $60 billion in overall U.S. assistance around the world, putting numbers on its plans to eliminate the majority of U.S. development and humanitarian help abroad.
The cuts detailed by the administration would leave few surviving USAID projects for advocates to try to save in what are ongoing court battles with the administration.
The Trump administration outlined its plans in both an internal memo obtained by The Associated Press and filings in one of those federal lawsuits Wednesday.
Wednesday’s disclosures also give an idea of the scale of the administration’s retreat from U.S. aid and development assistance overseas and from decades of U.S. policy that foreign aid helps U.S. interests by stabilizing other countries and economies and building alliances.
The memo said officials were “clearing significant waste stemming from decades of institutional drift.” More changes are planned in how USAID and the State Department deliver foreign assistance, it said.
President Donald Trump and ally Elon Musk have hit foreign aid harder and faster than almost any other target in their push to cut the size of the federal government. Both men say USAID projects advance a liberal agenda and are a waste of money.
Trump on Jan. 20 ordered what he said would be a 90-day program-by-program review of which foreign assistance programs deserved to continue and cut off all foreign assistance funds almost overnight.
The funding freeze has stopped thousands of U.S.-funded programs abroad, and the administration and Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency teams have pulled the majority of USAID staff off the job through forced leave and firings.
In the federal court filings Wednesday, nonprofits owed money on contracts with USAID describe both Trump political appointees and members of Musk’s teams terminating USAID’s contracts around the world at breakneck speed, without time for any meaningful review, they say.
“‘There are MANY more terminations coming, so please gear up!”’ a USAID official wrote staff Monday, in an email quoted by lawyers for the nonprofits in the filings.
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SOURCE: www.newsmax.com
RELATED: Supreme Court STOPS Biden Judge’s Midnight Deadline, Halts Order Forcing Admin to Pay $2 Billion in Foreign Contracts
THE GATEWAY PUNDIT | Published February 27, 2025
Chief Justice Roberts temporarily stopped Judge Amir Ali’s midnight deadline and halted his order forcing the Trump Admin to pay $2 billion in foreign contracts.
Biden-appointed Judge Amir Ali on Tuesday blasted DOJ lawyers over USAID disbursement and ordered the Trump Administration to pay the foreign contracts by 11:59 pm on Wednesday evening.
The Supreme Court immediately responded to Trump’s emergency request to vacate Judge Amir Ali’s order.
“IT IS ORDERED that the February 25, 2025 orders of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, case Nos. 1:25-cv-00400 and 1:25-cv-00402, are hereby stayed pending further order of the undersigned or of the Court. It is further ordered that any response to the application be filed on or before Friday, February 28, 2025, by 12 p.m. (EST)” Chief Justice Roberts wrote in a brief order.
HUGE: pic.twitter.com/Hifpww4QLF
— Margot Cleveland (@ProfMJCleveland) February 27, 2025
The Trump Administration on Wednesday evening filed an emergency appeal asking the Supreme Court to intervene after a Biden-appointed judge ordered the Admin to pay $2 billion in foreign contracts by midnight tonight.
“Neither the original TRO nor the district court’s subsequent clarifications in any way suggested that the government must pay particular invoices on particular dates,” the Acting Solicitor General wrote in the government’s application to vacate the judge’s order.
“The court’s 11:59 p.m. 30-some-hour deadline thus moved all the goalposts. Itis not tailored to any actual payment deadlines associated with respondents’ invoices or drawn-down requests, or anyone else’s. And it has thrown what should be an orderly review by the government into chaos,” the DOJ argued.
The DOJ rightly argued that the district court “lacked any jurisdiction even to issue this order dictating contractual payments by a date certain to remedy purported contractual breaches.”
BREAKING: Looks like the justices will be woken. 1/ https://t.co/vy2inJeXZB pic.twitter.com/d1Recpc5dP
— Margot Cleveland (@ProfMJCleveland) February 27, 2025
Trump’s DOJ on Wednesday morning asked the Court to grant an immediate administrative stay of the lower court’s order and a stay pending appeal.
DOJ lawyers blasted the Biden appointed judge for his “intrusive and profoundly erroneous” order.
The appeals court denied Trump’s motion to dismiss the judge’s order.
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