Read: Judge says Trump admin has withheld foreign aid despite court order
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Tributes to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 8. Photo: Astrid Riecken for The Washington Post via Getty Images
The Trump administration has "not complied" fully with a court order pausing a freeze on foreign aid, a federal judge in D.C. ruled Thursday evening.
The big picture: U.S. District Court Judge Amir Ali decided not to hold the State Department and Office of Management and Budget in contempt, but said to the extent they "have continued the blanket suspension, they are ordered to immediately cease it."
Driving the news: The Trump administration said it had complied with the order Ali issued last week that it temporarily reinstate foreign aid funding, as two nonprofits challenge in a lawsuit the axing of the assistance via USAID and the State Department.
- "By enjoining Defendants and their agents from implementing any directives to undertake such blanket suspension, the Court was not inviting Defendants to continue the suspension while they reviewed contracts and legal authorities to come up with a new, post-hoc rationalization for the en masse suspension," Ali wrote.
- The judge found the Trump administration had continued a funding freeze "pending review of agreements," something the temporary restraining order "enjoined pending the parties' requested briefing schedule and the Court's prompt resolution of whether to issue a preliminary injunction."
- However, the judge said "contempt is not warranted on the current record and given Defendants' explicit recognition that 'prompt compliance with the order' is required."
Context: The groups that filed the motion for civil contempt, the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition (AVAC) and Journalism Development Network, Inc. (JDN), cited a Trump administration status report that they said showed it had not restarted any funding or allowed the resumption of work despite the court order.
- They brought the lawsuit after President Trump on Jan. 20 signed an executive order pausing U.S. foreign aid amid a wider, DOGE-led cost-cutting overhaul of the federal workforce and agencies.
- Secretary of State Marco Rubio later issued waivers for "life-saving humanitarian assistance programs." Rubio also ordered a stop on most foreign assistance funded via the State Department and USAID.
- The nonprofits say the Trump administration's actions are illegal and "harming global health and security."
- Trump said in his order the "foreign aid industry and bureaucracy are not aligned with American interests and in many cases antithetical to American values."
Zoom out: The U.S. government has been the world's single largest humanitarian donor, per the United Nations.
Read the order in full, via DocumentCloud:
Go deeper: Courts become the final guardrail against Trump
Editor's note: This article has been updated with further context.
