A federal judge on Friday canceled President Trump’s attempt to seize control of the Inter-American Foundation, ordering the restoration of its fired CEO and erasing all the decisions made by the White House’s pick.
U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan said the Trump administration seems intent on eradicating the IAF, even though it was created and funded by Congress.
Judge AliKhan said she had to issue an injunction restoring Sara Aviel to the posts of president and CEO to prevent that and keep the foundation running while the case proceeds.
“Reinstatement matters little if the officer of a government organization returns to a pile of rubble. Ms. Aviel persuasively argues that, absent immediate injunctive relief, there will be no IAF left for her to lead,” the judge ruled.
She said the Trump team, led by Pete Marocco, its pick to head the foundation, has already trimmed the foundation’s work down to a single $66,000 grant.
The administration had argued that was all that was required by the law, but Judge AliKhan called that “artful lawyering.”
“To argue that the IAF remains functioning when it has one employee, one grant, and little else is comically difficult to believe,” she said.
The case is one of the key tests of Mr. Trump’s firing powers and his Department of Government Efficiency’s plans to wind down independent government agencies that aren’t valuable to his agenda.
The administration argues the foundation, along with another one, the African Development Foundation, has become wasteful slush funds for liberal international priorities.
Mr. Trump identified both by name in a Feb. 19 executive order, saying they should be “eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law.”
Ms. Aviel had resisted Mr. Trump’s winddown, saying her board needed to agree and that Congress needed to be notified before any major reduction in force for employees.
The president moved to fire most of the board and exert control but Ms. Aviel refused to recognize the firings.
Mr. Trump then fired her and appointed Mr. Marocco as acting chair of the IAF’s board. Mr. Marocco then held an emergency meeting of the board — at that point just himself — and voted himself president and CEO.
He also ordered the winddown.
Judge AliKhan ruled that only the board could fire Ms. Aviel, not the president. The judge also ruled that Mr. Marocco wasn’t properly appointed, so he couldn’t fire her either.
She said a Justice Department legal opinion justifying the firings was “suspiciously timed” and wasn’t “logically persuasive.”
