The administration of President Donald Trump has argued it cannot meet an impending deadline to release frozen funds for foreign aid, despite a court order mandating that it do so.
The deadline was set for Wednesday at 11:59pm Eastern time (04:59 GMT Thursday), after US District Judge Amir Ali in Washington, DC, found that the Trump administration had failed to comply with an earlier order calling for the funds’ distribution.
But late on Tuesday night, lawyers for the administration appealed Judge Ali’s ruling.
In their filings, they called for an appeals court to place a pause on the deadline while the legal proceedings take their course.
They also submitted a statement from Pete Marocco, a Trump ally serving as deputy director for the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the foreign aid agency at the heart of the case.
Marocco testified it could take “multiple weeks” for the payments to be disbursed, and he estimated that $2bn would need to be paid.
He also said the slowdown was the result of new Trump-era procedures, designed to ensure that the payments line up with the administration’s policy priorities.
But Judge Ali had previously dismissed that argument, saying it was not a valid reason for refusing to pay out contracts.
Upon taking office for a second term on January 20, Trump had announced his government would impose a 90-day pause on the payment of foreign aid, pending a review of assistance programmes.
That review, his order explained, would ensure “consistency with United States foreign policy”.
Trump has also moved to shutter USAID, accusing it of corruption and being run by “radical left lunatics”, without offering proof of any wrongdoing.
This week, 1,600 USAID workers were fired, and the majority of the remaining staff was placed on leave. Late on Tuesday, USAID employees were informed they would be allowed 15 minutes to clear out their offices.
But the sudden stop in foreign aid has left nonprofits, contractors and other businesses in the lurch, with no clear timeline for the government to pay its bills. Prior to the Trump administration, USAID distributed an estimated $60bn in aid each year.
On February 13, Judge Ali had called for the Trump administration to temporarily lift the funding freeze, in order for the government to pay nonprofits and contractors through that date.
But the judge recently observed that, in the weeks since, Trump officials have “continued their blanket suspension of funds”.
He accused the Trump White House of using that time to “come up with a new, post-hoc rationalization for the en masse suspension”.
Meanwhile, the nonprofits and businesses that used to do business with USAID have warned that, without payment, they could be forced to close.
“The lengths that the government is willing to go to flout a court order, all for the goal of ending life-saving humanitarian assistance, is staggering,” lawyer Allison Zieve told the Reuters news agency.
She represents the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition and Journalism Development Network, two of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
In the lead-up to Tuesday’s decision to impose a deadline, Judge Ali questioned the Trump administration’s lawyers about whether any efforts had been taken to comply with his initial court order.
“I’m not sure why I can’t get a straight answer from you on this: Are you aware of an unfreezing of the disbursement of funds for those contracts and agreements that were frozen before February 13?” he asked. “Are you aware of steps taken to actually release those funds?”
A lawyer for the Trump administration, Indraneel Sur, answered evasively. “I’m not in a position to answer that,” Sur said.
Critics say the Tuesday night appeal may set the stage for the Trump administration to ignore Judge Ali’s deadline.
