WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Friday dealt President Donald Trump and billionaire ally Elon Musk their first big setback in their dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development, ordering a temporary halt to plans to pull thousands of agency staffers off the job.
AP
Judge blocks Trump from placing thousands of USAID workers on leave
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A street sign with names of U.S. government agencies housed at the Ronald Regan Building, including the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID headquarters in Washington, is pictured with one building occupant taped, Friday, Feb. 7, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Demonstrators and lawmakers rally against President Donald Trump and his ally Elon Musk as they disrupt the federal government, including dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development, which administers foreign aid approved by Congress, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
FILE - An unidentified U.S. soldier stands guard as Albanian aid workers unload boxes of U.S. "Humanitarian Daily Rations" from a transport helicopter in Kukes, Albania at the Albania-Kosovo border April 4, 1999. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, File)
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, center right, walks with Edwin F. Lopez, the attaché for DHS Homeland Security Investigations, as they walk toward a Venezuelan government airplane that Rubio announced the U.S. is seizing at La Isabela International Airport in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)
New York's attorney general said DOGE's access to the data raises security issues and the possibility of an illegal freeze in federal funds.
Anyone prohibited from having access to the sensitive information since Jan. 20 must destroy all copies made from the department's systems.
Democrats pushed back against Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency as it turns its attention to the Education Department.
Trump said it's payback for Biden doing the same to him in 2021. "JOE, YOU'RE FIRED. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!" he posted on social media.
