- Chuang judge blocks Musk’s efforts to close USAID.
- Musk’s actions probably violated the American Constitution, explains Chuang.
- USAID operations have disrupted global rescue efforts in chaos.
A federal judge blocked Billionaire Elon Musk on Tuesday and the government’s Ministry of Efficiency to take other measures to close the US International Development Agency, saying their efforts to close the foreign aid agency probably violated the US Constitution.
In a preliminary decision, the American district judge Theodore Chuang in Maryland ordered Musk, a key advisor to President Donald Trump, and the Musk agency is heading to restore access to USAID IT systems for its direct and contractual employees, including thousands of people on leave.
The decision came in response to a trial by current and former USAID employees, one of the many awaiting the rapid dismantling of the main humanitarian aid of Washington.
“Today’s decision is an important victory against Elon Musk and his attack on the USAID, the US government and the Constitution,” said Norm Eisen, executive president of the Fund of Democracy of State Democracy, a lawyer representing the 26 anonymous complainants in the case.
Trump said Fox News His administration would appeal the decision.
“I guarantee you that we are going to call it. We have thugs judges that destroy our country,” said Trump on “the angle of Ingraham”.
Trump, a Republican, on his first day back to the White House, ordered a 90 -day freeze from all American foreign aid and an examination of the question of whether the aid programs were aligned on the policy of his administration.
Shortly after, Musk and Dogi had access to the USAID payment and email systems, frozen many of its payments and said a large part of its staff that they were on leave. On February 3, Musk wrote on X that he had “spent the weekend feeding Usaid in the wooden shredder”.
The complainants affirmed in their trial of February 13 that Musk had seized the control of the USAID and had actually acted as an officer of the United States, violating the requirement of the Constitution according to which these officers were appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate.
They said that Musk and Doge had exceeded the authority of the government’s executive branch, effectively eliminating an agency established by the congress.
Chuang, who was appointed by Democratic President Barack Obama, agreed that Musk and Doge “probably violated the United States Constitution in several ways and that these actions have not only harmed the complainants, but also to the public interest”.
Musk and DOGE has argued in court documents that the role of Musk is strictly as a Trump advisor, and that agency officials, and not DOGE, were responsible for the actions disputed by the complainants. Chuang found that Musk and Doge had actually exercised direct control over the agency.
In addition to ordering them to restore employee computer access, he prohibited them from disclosing any significant information from employees.
CHUANG did not blocked the mass layoffs of most USAID contracts and staff, which ended most of the agency’s operations in the world and launched global humanitarian rescue efforts in chaos. He noted that even if these layoffs probably violated the Constitution, they had been approved by representatives of the government who are not appointed in the trial.
Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, said last week that the administration abandoned more than 80% of USAID programs and had reduced most of its staff.
In a separate trial brought by the USAID entrepreneurs, the American district judge Amir Ali in Washington ordered the administration last week to quickly release the free payments to entrepreneurs for previous work, but ceased to order to restore contracts.
The administration did not pay the total amount of the first batch of payments that Ali ordered, totaling around $ 671 million, by a deadline of March 10. He quoted the need to examine payments individually. Ali on Monday, Ali ordered the government to provide a calendar of the date on which he would make payments and all other payments, which total nearly $ 2 billion.
