By Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Federal officials told a U.S. judge on February 25 that they would be unable to comply with his order to release frozen foreign aid within two days.
The order by U.S. District Judge Amir H. Ali, which set a deadline of Feb. 26 at 11:59 p.m. ET, would mean paying the U.S. Agency for International Development at least $1.5 billion for about 2,000 outstanding and newly drafted payment requests, an official who serves as the agency’s deputy administrator said in a court filing.
It would also require paying at least $400 million to the State Department to resolve outstanding payment requests, said official Pete Marocco.
“These payments cannot be made within the time frame set by the court and would instead take several weeks,” he wrote.
Earlier Tuesday, Ali was told in a hearing with government lawyers and lawyers representing groups suing over the freeze that the groups have not yet been paid, despite several of his previous orders, including a Feb. 13 order mandating the Trump administration to freeze foreign aid.
“I’m not sure why I can’t get a straight answer from you on this: Are you aware of the freezing of funds under these contracts and agreements that were frozen prior to February 13,” the Washington-based judge asked government attorney Indraneel Suri during the hearing. “Are you aware of the steps taken to actually release those funds?”
“I can’t answer that,” Sur said.
This is the second time a judge has found that the Trump administration failed to comply with a court order. U.S. District Court Judge John McConnell in Rhode Island also found this month that the administration had failed to fully release federal grants and loans in the U.S. after it blocked sweeping plans to halt trillions of dollars in government spending.
In the Washington case, plaintiffs recently filed an emergency motion to enforce a judge’s temporary restraining order, saying they are still owed millions of dollars and their contracts, which were terminated due to Trump’s foreign aid freeze, remain terminated.
Ali granted the emergency motion at Tuesday’s session and ordered the government to implement it by Thursday.
Marocco’s declaration was accompanied by a government motion asking the judge to stay the order as a federal appeals court considers overturning it.
“The defendants are likely to succeed in appealing the court order on several grounds,” government lawyers said. “For starters, the defendants are unable to comply with the requirements,” they said, pointing to Morocco’s declaration.
The government appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
