Judge includes new USAID head in order against dismantling the agency

Days after a federal judge blocked billionaire Elon Musk and the U.S. DOGE Service from taking further actions to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development, he made clear in a separate ruling this week that the prohibition also applied to the agency’s new chief operating officer — a former DOGE team leader inside USAID who started his new role on the day of the first order.

Jeremy Lewin, a 28-year-old Harvard Law School grad on DOGE’s team dismantling USAID, joined the humanitarian agency Tuesday as its chief operating officer and deputy administrator for policy and programming, according to a court filing Wednesday by the Department of Justice. The Department of Justice asked the Maryland federal judge to clarify or modify his order so that it wouldn’t apply to Lewin.

U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang, in declining the request Thursday, added that he reserves the right to modify the preliminary injunction to expand who it applies to if “additional personnel actions have the effect of circumventing” it.

On Friday, the Department of Justice filed notice that it will appeal Chuang’s original ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

Chuang’s admonition is among the latest examples of federal judges warning the Trump administration against trying to sidestep judicial orders. Among others, U.S. District Judge Amir H. Ali in D.C. has held tense hearings after the administration appeared to defy an order unfreezing certain foreign aid, and James E. Boasberg, chief judge for the U.S. District Court for D.C., called information the government provided him in recent days about the use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan migrants with alleged ties to a transnational gang “woefully insufficient.”

Trump has been pushing back against judges who have ruled against him in some of the scores of lawsuits challenging the legality of his actions early in his new administration, with some of his supporters calling for judges to be removed from the bench.

The injunction issued by Chuang on Tuesday applied only to Musk and DOGE — not to USAID officials themselves. Chuang specified that although the dismantling of USAID — even by USAID officials — “likely violates” the Constitution, USAID officials are not parties to the case and not subject to his order.

In the request for clarification, Justice Department lawyers said the decision to install Lewin as an agency head came before the judge issued his injunction “but was formalized” the same day. “Given his new role, he is no longer DOGE Team Lead at USAID, nor is he a member of that team at all,” the lawyers wrote.

The Justice Department lawyers said that Lewin was appointed to the new role by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is acting as USAID’s administrator, and that Lewin “is now responsible for most of the day-to-day work at USAID.”

“Mr. Lewin surely does not fall within the spirit of this Court’s decision,” the lawyers wrote, saying they wanted “to ensure he is not wrongfully picked up by its letter.”

In denying the request, Chuang appeared to consider further actions by Lewin at USAID to violate his order’s spirit as well as its letter. Chuang said he specifically included “all individuals with a past or present affiliation” with DOGE to “address the most likely perpetrators of constitutional violations.”

“Excluding Lewin from this class would undermine these purposes,” Chuang wrote. “Any necessary USAID functions can be accomplished through other authorized USAID officials in conjunction with the recusal of any enjoined individuals.”

In an opinion accompanying his injunction Tuesday, Chuang wrote that the actions by Musk and DOGE to quickly shut down USAID “likely violated the United States Constitution in multiple ways.”

The lawsuit that prompted Chuang’s injunction was brought by the State Democracy Defenders Fund on behalf of more than two dozen USAID workers named only as plaintiffs J. Does 1-26.

They allege that Musk’s assumption of vast authority over federal agencies is “unprecedented in U.S. history” and, under the Constitution, could be exercised only by someone who has been nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate as an “Officer of the United States.” The lawsuit also asserts that DOGE’s moves to eliminate USAID is unconstitutional because the agency was created by Congress and only Congress can do away with it.

Justice Department lawyers representing Musk and DOGE countered that they have had no formal authority over USAID or other federal agencies. USAID’s own leaders, not Musk, have been responsible for actions such as stoppages in spending and placing employees on administrative leave, DOJ lawyers say.

In a 68-page opinion that accompanied his ruling Tuesday, Chuang wrote that statements by Trump and Musk, who said on his social media platform X that DOGE fed USAID “into the wood chipper,” contradict the Justice Department’s assertions. By early February, almost 90 percent of the 4,765 direct-hire employees at USAID were on or slated for placement on administrative leave, according to Chuang’s opinion. Trump administration officials showcased the moves by removing the agency’s seal from the Ronald Reagan building and, then, shuttering those offices.

Lewin, who received his law degree in 2022, could not be reached Friday. A media representative at USAID referred questions to U.S. State Department spokespeople, who declined to comment.

In an affidavit accompanying the DOJ’s request for clarification, Lewin talked about reorganizing USAID in ways that appeared at odds with Musk’s wood-chipper assertions. Lewin said that “responsible administration of USAID’s critical and lifesaving Global Health activities” requires changing or terminating “certain existing grants or contracts to better allocate resources to higher-impact activities.”

“To that end, I have reviewed requests from career staff to terminate certain unnecessary contracts to create room to reactivate, renegotiate, and sign new contracts with greater impact,” Lewin wrote.

Lewin also said in the affidavit that he reported directly to Rubio and that, other than Rubio, only he had sufficient authority to authorize such actions. “I intend to timely approve many of these requests, which I have been advised are essential to ensure that millions of people living with HIV can timely receive their medication,” Lewin wrote.