In potential showdown, aid groups demand court find USAID, State officials in contempt
Source: NPR
Updated February 19, 2025 7:01 PM ET
Groups that receive foreign aid are asking a federal judge to find the Trump officials now running the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development in contempt of court for not reopening the flow of money to thousands of programs around the globe, as the judge has ordered.
In a filing Wednesday afternoon, the plaintiffs said that each day the funding is delayed, millions of people across the world who rely on it suffer. It urged the judge to impose penalties until the U.S. government complies.
The plaintiffs were responding to a court filing in which USAID insisted it had the right to cancel most of its foreign aid contracts. In that Tuesday filing, the agency said it was also reviewing contracts and grants one by one for evidence of waste, fraud and to ensure they are aligned with President Trump's goals.
"This Court should not brook such brazen defiance of the express terms of its order," the plaintiffs said Wednesday. Judge Amir H. Ali of the U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia has yet to respond to the contempt request.
Read more: https://www.npr.org/sections/goats-and-soda/2025/02/19/g-s1-49716/trump-officials-foreign-aid-usaid-judge
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