The Washington, D.C., district court judge said administration officials had used his Feb. 13 order to temporarily lift the freeze on foreign aid to instead “come up with a new, post-hoc rationalization for the en masse suspension” of funding.

A federal judge last week blocked the State Department’s foreign aid pause. In a court filing, Trump administration lawyers argued they can freeze the aid anyway.

A federal judge on Thursday ordered Trump administration officials to comply with his earlier order that they lift a freeze of nearly all foreign aid, though he stopped short of holding them in contempt of court.

A judge last week ruled that the freeze on foreign aid must be reversed. But Trump's USAID team responded that many contracts give them the right to halt funding.