A federal judge paused the Trump administration’s efforts to drastically scale back the U.S. Agency for International Development, temporarily halting plans to put 2,200 employees on leave by midnight on Friday.
Shortly before those plans were set to take effect, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, issued a limited temporary restraining order blocking the government from putting USAID employees on leave and reinstating 500 staffers who had already been placed on administrative leave. The order also paused a directive recalling overseas USAID employees to the U.S.
The restraining order is in effect until next Friday, Feb. 14 at 11:59pm. Judge Nichols scheduled a hearing on Feb. 12.
Federal judge blocks Elon Musk’s DOGE access to critical Treasury payment system
A federal judge, citing a risk of “irreparable harm,” has temporarily restricted Elon Musk’s government efficiency team from accessing a critical Treasury Department payment system.
The judge’s order, issued early Saturday, temporarily halts access to a sensitive payment system that distributes Americans’ tax returns, Social Security benefits, disability payments and federal employees’ salaries.
US District Judge Paul Engelmayer ordered the destruction of any downloaded information from the payment system by anyone given access to it since January 20, citing “the risk that the new policy presents of the disclosure of sensitive and confidential information and the heightened risk that the systems in question will be more vulnerable than before to hacking.”
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/08/politics/elon-musk-doge-treasury-payment-system/index.html
https://www.npr.org/sections/goats-and-soda/2025/02/07/g-s1-47224/usaid-freeze-judge-trump
