Judge Extends Block on Trump Officials Slashing Funds to Democratic States

A federal judge extended an order blocking the Trump administration from withholding child care and social service funds for five Democratic-led states, averting cuts that the states say were politically motivated and would harm hundreds of thousands of people.

Judge Vernon S. Broderick’s decision prevents the administration from restricting as much as $10 billion destined for Minnesota, New York, California, Illinois and Colorado. The states learned of the planned suspension on Jan. 5, after President Trump criticized a large welfare fraud case in Minnesota and asserted, without evidence, that similar frauds were occurring in other blue states.

The administration’s letters cited the Minnesota case but offered no evidence of fraud in the other four states; the Minnesota prosecutions involved a pandemic-era feeding program, not the child care and welfare programs the administration targeted, and those charged were overwhelmingly U.S.

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