Washington – dismantling of the American International Development Agency by a billionaire Elon Musk’s The performance of the government department probably violated the constitution, the federal judge ruled on Tuesday, when he infinitely blocked the dog before the agency’s further cuts.
The order requires Trump administration To restore access to e -mail and a computer to all USAID employees, including those who have been on administrative leave, although it ceases to reverse dismissal or fully resurrect the agency.
In one of the first defects of the Doge against Musk herself, the District Judge Theodore Chuang in Maryland rejected the position of Trump’s administration that Musk is only the president Donald Trump counselor.
Public statements of Musk and posts in social media show that he has “strong control over dog”, the judge found an internet post in which Musk said that “fed USAID to the chipper.”
The judge said it is likely that USAID is no longer able to perform some of its statutory functions.
“To sum up, these facts confirm the conclusion that USAID has been effectively eliminated,” Chuang wrote in the initial order.
A lawsuit filed by employees and contractors of USAID argued that Musk and Doge exploit the authority, which is reserves the constitution only for those who win elections or are confirmed by the Senate. Their lawyers said that the decision “effectively stops or reverses” many steps to dismantle the agency.
The administration said that Doge is looking for and eradicating waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government, as a message that helped Trump to win the election in 2024. The White House and Doge did not answer immediately at the request for a comment on the decision.
Musk, his team and political denominator, Trump Pete Marocco, played a central role in the two -month dismantling of USAID. In one case, at the beginning of February, the administration put the best agency security officials on forced leave after they tried to block Doge employees with access to classified and sensitive documents of USAID.
The administration, with the support of Musk and Doge, ordered all except a fraction of agency employees from work through forced leaves and dismissals, and ended what, according to the Department of State, was at least 83% of USAID program contracts.
The movements were part of the wider musk pressure and Trump’s administration in order to eliminate the six -year foreign assistance agency and most of its work abroad.
Asset On the day of the inauguration, it issued an executive order managing the freezing of foreign aid financing and review of all Works and development of the USA abroadThe accusation that many foreign lend a hand was a waste and developed a liberal program.
Democratic legislators and other supporters of USAID claimed that Trump did not have the right to suspend financing, which Congress has already approved.
Chuang said that the rapidly moving destruction by Doge and Musk probably hurt the public interest, depriving selected legislators of their “constitutional power to decide whether, when and how to close the agency created by the Congress.”
The lawsuit was filed by the Defenders State Democracy Fund. Eisen standards, the chairman of non -profit, said that the ruling is a milestone in redemption for Doge, and the first stated that musk activities violate the clause of the constitution, which fines Presidential approval and confirmation of the Senate for some public officials.
“They perform surgery with a chain chain instead of a scalpel, harming not only USAID people, but most Americans who count on the stability of our government,” he said in a statement.
Abby Maxman from Oxfam America called all the staff and funds to restore. “Financing of freezing and cutting of the program already have the consequences of life or death for millions around the world,” said the general director of the humanitarian group.
