USAID staffers turned away from offices even after court suspends leave order Officials and federal officers turned away scores of U.S. Agency for International staffers who showed up for work Monday at its Washington headquarters, after a court temporarily blocked a Trump administration order that would have pulled all but a fraction of workers off the job worldwide.
A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked a Trump administration order that would have put thousands of USAID staffers on administrative leave that same day and given those abroad 30 days to get back to the United States at the government's expense.
A USAID email sent Sunday night, saying it was “From the office of the administrator,” told employees that what it called “the former USAID headquarters” and other USAID offices in the Washington area were closed until further notice.
While the judge ordered the administration to restore agency email access for staffers, the order said nothing about reopening USAID headquarters.
Workers embraced who had not seen each other since President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, who runs a cost-cutting taskforce, the Department of Government Efficiency, began dismantling USAID and its aid and development programs worldwide three weeks ago.
