The Trump-appointed Judge Carl Nichols issued a temporary restraining order on Friday, pausing President Donald Trump's gutting of USAID, an agency Trump said is rife with fraud, waste, and corruption.
USAID, which effectively has been shuttered as part of a government cleanup campaign by the Musk-backed Department of Government Efficiency commission, ascended to headline scrutiny in the past few weeks as Democrats, such as Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., bemoan that their "dollars" are being taken away.
Lauren Bateman, an attorney at Public Citizen Litigation Group, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of the unions alongside Democracy Forward, told reporters Thursday, according to The Hill, that "The administration's sudden dismantlement of USAID, an agency that has been performing life-saving work around the world, without any notice to its thousands of employees or to the people that it serves is a profound moral stain."
During the court hearing, Judge Nichols said that the Trump administration "should not put those 2,200 people on administrative leave tonight."
Judge Nichols cited the plaintiff's argument, noting that because many USAID employees work "overseas" and would incur "hardships" if effectively cutoff, that a temporary restraining order was merited.
According to a Congressional Research Service report from Jan. 2025, more than two-thirds of USAID's 10,000 employees work overseas.
Judge Nichols' order temporarily prevents the government from placing thousands of USAID workers on administrative leave and allowing them a brief reprieve to evacuate their host countries until Feb. 14.
Some 500 USAID employees are currently on administrative leave. Nichols ordered that they must be reinstated until that date and restored to have complete access to email, payment, and security notification systems. Nichols has set a preliminary injunction hearing for Feb. 12.
As DOGE sets it sights to expose USAID for waste and fraud, Republicans are ostensibly looking to rebrand it. Last week, the Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Brian Mast, R-Fla., told "Face the Nation," the agency would be restructured under the Secretary of State. In late, January, Secretary of State Marco Rubio circulated an internal memo that noted Israel and Egypt would be exempt from a blanket pause in foreign aid.
Nick Koutsobinas ✉
Nick Koutsobinas, a Newsmax writer, has years of news reporting experience. A graduate from Missouri State University’s philosophy program, he focuses on exposing corruption and censorship.
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