Federal judge says Trump administration ignoring his order to pause funding freeze

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• Geoff Bennett:

  Today, a federal judge said that President Donald Trump violated his order that lifted a blanket freeze on federal spending and again directed the administration to release the funds.

• Amna Nawaz:

  That as top prosecutors in nearly half the country just won a temporary legal victory, restoring medical research funding stripped late last week.

  White House correspondent Laura Barron-Lopez joins us now for more.

  So, Laura, with three weeks into the Trump administration, you're seeing a growing number of federal judges describe the president's actions as overreach. What more did federal judges say about Mr. Trump's attempts to free some of those federal funds.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  So, on that sweeping freeze of federal funding, District Judge John McConnell said in a ruling today that the Trump administration's continued freeze of those funds — quote — "violate the plain text of an order" that he previously issued saying that they needed to stop and that they needed to release all of those funds.

  And Judge McConnell called Trump's actions — quote — "likely unconstitutional" and said that the freeze continues to — quote — "cause irreparable harm" to much of the country. Now, he didn't hold any government officials in contempt, criminal contempt, but hinted that he might in the future if they violate this order.

  And he specifically ordered the administration to stop freezing money for the infrastructure law, for the Inflation Reduction Act — those are Biden era laws — as well as said that he needed — that the administration needed to release funding for the National Institutes of Health.

  So the big question here, Amna, is, does the Trump administration comply with this judge's order? I asked the White House. They didn't answer that question. And there's some suggestions from people like Vice President Vance as well as Elon Musk that they think that the administration should defy the court orders.

• Amna Nawaz:

  You mentioned the National Institutes of Health, or NIH.

  On Friday night, we should remind folks, the Trump administration announced it was cutting billions of dollars in NIH funding. We just saw a temporary legal victory for the case to let those funds move ahead. What should we understand about that case and its impact?

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  So, now a second judge has said just moments ago that the administration needs to release that funding for the National Institutes of Health that goes to medical centers, that goes to universities.

  And it funds research for things like cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. And they said that the administration needs to show within 24 hours that they have released that funds and they have to show that on an ongoing basis, because essentially the states argue that this is lifesaving research that is being held up because of this block.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Meanwhile, we have seen Mr. Trump and Elon Musk's work to slash the federal work force continue, this time with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Tell us about that.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  That's right.

  Russ Vought, who is the head of the budget office for the Trump administration, but also the acting director of the CFPB, that consumer watchdog group, he ordered that all CFPB staff stop working, don't come into the office. This is something that Project 2025 wanted to do. They wanted to eliminate the entire agency.

  But like the USAID, Agency for International Development, it takes an act of Congress if you're going to dismantle any of these agencies or even try to transfer their functions. And so, again, it's a question of whether or not Congress is going to step in here. It's a playbook similar to what they did with USAID.

  And we did see today that, despite, again, a judge's order saying that USAID workers had to be allowed to return to work and to reinstate their functions and the work of the agency, ultimately, those workers were barred from entering their office today, Amna.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Our White House correspondent, Laura Barron-Lopez, with the latest.

  Laura, thank you. Thank you.