On Wednesday evening, Chief Justice John Roberts swooped in to save the Orange Ass from meeting financial obligations to USAID projects worth $2 billion, pausing a lower court order.
Roberts, who oversees requests for emergency relief arising from cases in the District of Columbia, acted alone in halting the decision from a federal district judge issued Tuesday. The judge, U.S. District Judge Amir Ali, gave the State Department and USAID until 11:59 p.m. Wednesday to pay its bills to contractors for work that had been completed before Feb. 13. The Trump administration had earlier in the night asked the Supreme Court to intervene in the dispute involving frozen foreign assistance funds.
Roberts gifted the State Department and USAID contractors until noon Friday to respond to the misadministration’s request.
Also on Wednesday evening, the Associated Press cited an internal memo and court filings to report that the misadministration said it is eliminating more than 90% of the USAID’s foreign aid contracts and $60 billion in overall U.S. assistance around the world.
More details at CBS.
