Washington, March 14 (RHC)-- A U.S. federal judge in Washington, D.C., has ordered the Trump administration to pay nearly $2 billion in foreign aid funds owed to grant recipients and contractors of the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development. 

In Monday’s ruling, U.S. District Judge Amir H. Ali said the administration’s freeze on the foreign aid funds likely violates the separation of powers, writing, “The constitutional power over whether to spend foreign aid is not the President’s own — and it is Congress’s own.”

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has ordered the wholesale destruction of classified documents and other records at USAID, which President Trump and Elon Musk are working to dismantle. 

An e-mail from USAID’s acting executive secretary, Erica Carr, reads:  “Shred as many documents first, and reserve the burn bags for when the shredder becomes unavailable or needs a break.” 

It’s not clear whether any USAID official got permission from the National Archives to destroy the documents, a necessary step under the Federal Records Act of 1950.

[ SOURCE:  DEMOCRACY NOW ]