A federal judge blocked the Trump administration from placing thousands of employees at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) on paid leave Friday, halting plans to cut its workforce down to just a few hundred.
Washington, DC, US District Judge Carl Nichols imposed a “very limited” restraining order on the administration, Politico reported, sparing at least 2,200 USAID employees from being put on paid leave at midnight.
Administration officials had reportedly moved to gut the agency’s more than 10,000-person workforce by the end of the week down to just 290 or so staff members.
Just 500 employees at USAID had already been placed on leave and are likely to be recalled, Nichols also noted in the hearing.
Federal unions had sued President Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and others in the administration on Thursday for moving to dismantle the agency and reorganize it.
