A federal judge has mandated that the Trump administration distribute millions of dollars to several nonprofit groups, concluding that the administration violated the terms of a temporary restraining order issued two weeks ago concerning the freezing of foreign aid.
Judge Amir Ali, appointed during the Biden era, criticized the Trump administration's attorneys during an extensive hearing on Tuesday. The criticism centered around their failure to compensate the groups for work conducted before President Trump's January 20 executive order, which froze all foreign aid for 90 days. To enforce the temporary restraining order signed on February 13, Ali ruled that the groups must receive their payments by 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday.
“Plaintiffs submitted evidence that defendants have not lifted the suspension or freeze of funds as the temporary restraining order required. Defendants have not rebutted that evidence, and when asked today, defendants were not able to provide any specific examples of unfreezing funds pursuant to the Court's TRO,” Judge Ali stated after a two-hour hearing.
Attorneys from the Department of Justice admitted that the Trump administration ignored the temporary restraining order, which prohibited the freezing of foreign aid funds. However, they contended that they should not be obligated to repay the money due to "sovereign immunity."
During an extensive discussion, a DOJ lawyer found it challenging to address basic questions regarding the Trump administration's compliance with the temporary restraining order. This order was meant to prevent the administration from freezing the funds.
Judge Ali expressed his frustration, stating, “I'm not sure why I can't get a straight answer from you on this. Are you aware of an unfreezing of the disbursement of funds for those contracts and agreements that were frozen before February 13?” He further pressed, “Are you aware of steps taken to actually release those funds?”
DOJ attorney Indraneel Sur replied, “I’m not in a position to answer that.” This led Judge Ali to respond, “We're 12 days in and you're here representing the government...and you can't answer me whether any funds that you've kind of acknowledged or covered by the court's order have been unfrozen?”
Sur attempted to justify the Trump administration's noncompliance, prompting Judge Ali to reiterate that the purpose of the hearing was to discuss the enforcement of the TRO, not to re-litigate it.
A lawyer representing the nonprofits argued that the Trump administration's lack of action amounts to defiance of the court order. “What the court's colloquy with the government has revealed is that the government has done nothing to make the flow of payments happen,” he stated. “As far as we are aware, there's been zero directives from the agency with respect to the unfreezing of funds.”
