By ELLEN KNICKMEYER and MICHAEL KUNZELMAN
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday gave the Trump administration less than two days to release billions of dollars in U.S. foreign aid, saying the administration had given no sign of complying with his nearly two-week-old court to ease its funding freeze.
U.S. District Judge Amir H. Ali ruled in a lawsuit filed by nonprofit organizations over the cutoff of foreign assistance through the U.S. Agency for International Development and State Department.
The cutoff followed a Jan. 20 executive order by President Donald Trump targeting what he portrayed as wasteful programs that do not correspond to his foreign policy goals.
Nonprofit groups who receive federal grant money for work abroad said the freeze breaks federal law and has shut down funding for even the most urgent life-saving programs abroad. USAID and State partners say the administration has stiffed them on billions of dollars in money already owed.
It’s the second time a judge has found the Trump administration did not follow a court order. U.S. District Court Judge John McConnell in Rhode Island also found this month that the administration had not fully unfrozen federal grants and loans within the U.S., even after he blocked sweeping plans for a pause on trillions of dollars in government spending.
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