USAID employees want a judge to keep blocking Trump’s effort to pull most of them off the job

WASHINGTON (AP) — Employees at the U.S. Agency for International Development are asking a federal judge on Thursday to keep blocking an effort by President Donald Trump’s administration meant to pull all but a fraction of worldwide staffers off the job.

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, who was nominated by Trump, handed the administration and billionaire ally Elon Musk a setback last week by temporarily halting plans that would have put thousands of workers on leave and given those abroad only 30 days to return to the United States at government expense.

Nichols’ order was set to expire by the end of the day.

Two associations representing federal employees want him to continue it as well as suspending Trump’s freeze on almost all foreign assistance. The president’s pause has shut down clinics, emergency water deliveries and almost all other of the thousands of U.S.-funded aid and development programs around the globe, USAID workers and humanitarian groups say.

While the administration and Musk’s cost-cutting initiative, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, have taken aim at other agencies, they have moved most destructively against USAID, asserting without evidence that its work is wasteful and out of line with Trump’s agenda.

In a court filing, deputy USAID head Pete Marocco argued that “insubordination” made it impossible for the new administration to undertake a close review of aid programs without first pushing almost all USAID staffers off the job and halting aid and development work. He did not provide evidence for his assertion.

USAID staffers, in court filings, have denied being insubordinate. They said they were doing their best to carry out what they describe as vague and confusing orders, some of which were said to come from a Musk associate and other outsiders.

Agency supporters told Democratic senators on Wednesday that the shutdown — along with other administration steps, including revoking USAID’s lease on its Washington headquarters — was really about eradicating USAID before lawmakers or the courts could stop it.

The employee groups, Democratic lawmakers and others argue that without congressional approval, Trump lacks the power to shut USAID or end its programs. His team says the power of courts or lawmakers to stand in the way is limited at best.

“The President’s powers in the realm of foreign affairs are generally vast and unreviewable,” government lawyers said in court documents.