Summary
A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to release billions of dollars in blocked foreign aid within 48 hours, citing noncompliance with a 13-day-old court order.
The freeze, imposed by Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order, halted funding for USAID and State Department programs, affecting hundreds of millions of dollars owed to nonprofits and businesses.
The cutoff forced tens of thousands of layoffs and jeopardized critical aid projects. Despite the Feb. 13 ruling, no payments resumed.
This follows another case where a judge found the administration failed to unfreeze trillions in domestic grants and loans.
The DoJ is an executive agency, under the President, currently run by Pam Bondi and Emil Bove. Anyone in that organization who moves against the President is getting fired, whether or not that is legal.
Importantly, as of a few days ago any agency in the executive branch has to defer to the president and attorney general for interpretation of the laws, so if the president says the court order is illegal then the DoJ doesn’t have to do anything.