Judge Halts USAID Leave

A U.S. judge on Friday temporarily allowed roughly 2,700 U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) employees, who had been put on leave by President Donald Trump's administration, to return to work, pausing aspects of a plan to dismantle the agency.
U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols in Washington, who was nominated by Trump during his first term, partially granted a request from the largest U.S. government workers' union and an association of foreign service workers who sued to stop the administration's efforts to close the agency.

Nichols's order, which will be in effect until February 14, blocks the Trump administration from implementing plans to place about 2,200 USAID workers on paid leave beginning on Saturday and reinstates some 500 employees who had already been furloughed.

It also bars the administration from relocating USAID humanitarian workers stationed outside the United States.

Trump in a post on Truth Social on Friday accused USAID - without evidence - of corruption and spending money fraudulently.

He said the corruption at USAID "IS AT LEVELS RARELY SEEN BEFORE. CLOSE IT DOWN!"

Hours after he was inaugurated on January 20, Trump ordered all U.S. foreign aid be paused to ensure it is aligned with his "America First" policy. Chaos has since consumed USAID, which distributes billions of dollars of humanitarian aid around the world.

The State Department issued worldwide stop-work directives after the executive order was issued, effectively freezing all foreign aid with the exception of emergency food assistance. That brought USAID programs covering lifesaving aid across the globe to a grinding halt, in a move that experts warned risked killing people.