Judge orders Trump admin to pay USAID partners millions by Monday

State of play: The groups sued the Trump administration after it froze foreign aid as part of a DOGE-led effort to cut federal spending and largely dismantle USAID, which was the world's largest humanitarian aid organization.

• Ali said Thursday he thought it was "feasible" for the first set of payments to be made by the Monday deadline, per the Washington Post.

What they're saying: "During a 4-hour hearing, the government continued to insist that shutting down humanitarian assistance was both reasonable and lawful," said Allison Zieve, director of the Public Citizen Litigation Group, which is representing the groups, in an emailed statement late Thursday.

• "In response, though, the court set a deadline of Monday evening for payments to our clients that are overdue," Zieve added.
• "He also indicated that he will set a timeline for payment of others' overdue invoices. And we are hopeful that the judge will provide additional relief when he rules on the full scope of our preliminary injunction motion on Monday."

The other side: Attorneys for the Trump administration said in a filing officials had worked overnight to certify some "$70.3 million in additional payments" to the groups, which were expected to be released on Thursday.

• "It will take another day or so for those payments to be received vendors accounts," the filing added.
• "It is currently anticipated that all legitimate payments owed to the Plaintiffs will be processed within days, and not more than ten working days."
• Representatives for the Trump administration and did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment in the evening.

Go deeper: Exclusive: Oversight Dems open probe into Trump's USAID purge

Editor's note: This article has been updated with comment from Public Citizen Litigation Group director Allison Zieve.