A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from withholding federal funding to the National Endowment for Democracy, a nonprofit established by Congress to bolster democracy worldwide that had been paralyzed by the loss of funding earlier this year.
Judge Dabney L. Friedrich of the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia wrote in her 15-page ruling that the Trump administration had withheld funds from the nonprofit “for impermissible policy reasons,” and that the endowment had suffered irreparable harm in the form of layoffs of critical staff members and suspension of several democracy-supporting initiatives.
“These harms to the endowment’s global reputation and to the ‘very existence of its programs’ are irreparable,” Judge Friedrich wrote, ordering the release of $95 million in federal funds to the nonprofit — roughly 30 percent of its annual budget.
The endowment, which has been denounced by major authoritarian powers like China and Russia, was one of several U.S.-backed human rights groups that fell victim to aggressive cuts mandated by the Department of Government Efficiency, a group led by Elon Musk that sought to slash much of the government soon after President Trump returned to office.
The grants fund projects such as the development of software that allows citizens to view banned websites and efforts to support independent journalism, many of which ground to a halt after funding was suspended this year.
When the nonprofit sued to release the funds in March, the Trump administration had been withholding $239 million in congressionally appropriated funding from the endowment. After the group sued, the administration released some of the funds.
Chris Cameron is a Times reporter covering Washington, focusing on breaking news and the Trump administration.
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