The national endowment of democracy, a non -profit institution, has received support from the two parties over decades of its work that enhances democracy abroad, sue government officials of the United States and the Council of Ministers for blocking $ 239 million in Congress credits.
The members of the group’s board of directors, which includes the current and former Republican and Democratic lawmakers, said that the organization filed the lawsuit on Wednesday afternoon as a recent resort because it was unable to obtain the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to return the money to flow.
The group also requests the court to prevent the government from blocking any future money allocated by Congress.
The group had to put about 75 percent of its employees on an unpaid leave, and about 1,800 projects have been received since late January, after President Trump signed an executive order to freeze in all foreign aid.
In the lawsuit, it was submitted to the Federal Provincial Court of Colombia, Group argument Its money from Congress is not a foreign aid and does not fall under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which manages the transfer of funds, or any other executive branch agency. Members of the Board of Directors say that blocking financing is illegal.
Peter Rosam, a former Republican Congress member of Illinois, who heads non -profit organizations, said the board of directors voted on Tuesday to go to the court.
He said in an interview on Wednesday, minutes before the lawsuit was filed: “It will be pleased to know that this was just an supervision and that someone forgot to hit the transmission button.” “But it is clear that this is not what is happening.”
The ordeal of the endowment is a symbol of the tremendous shift in foreign policy taking place in the second Trump administration, as the president tries to remove the government from work that aims to strengthen alliances based on values, democracy and human rights towards a more clear transactions.
Mr. Trump tried to cancel the results of the 2020 elections that he lost to Joseph R. Biden Junior, and the House of Representatives voted to remove it for the second time because of his incitement to riots in the Capitol against legislators who suffer from Mr. Biden’s victory.
Some senior administration officials have The approved languageIncluding phrases that were once popular among the progressive critics of the American government, about the negative aspect of American projects that seek to extend influence across societies abroad, describing such programs “building the nation” and attempts to “change the system”.
The White House representatives, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Justice did not respond to suspension requests.
ELON Musk, Billionaire Adviser to Mr. Trump, published Criticism From the national endowment of democracy via the Internet last month, saying without providing evidence that it is “widespread in corruption !!” “The evil organization must be resolved,” he wrote, using the same conspiracy language that he used to describe the American Agency for International Development, which Mr. Musk helped dismantle.
Actress Elise Stefanick, a New York Republic, was the choice of Mr. Trump for the United Nations Ambassador, at the National Democracy Board of Directors until she was forced to prepare to prepare for the Senate’s assertion for a new job. Senator Todd Young, Indiana Republican, is currently in the Board of Directors.
The policy of Mr. Trump has also been put in place in recent weeks because of his criticism of Democratic Ukraine in its defensive battle against Russia; Imposed it on a high tariff on two allies, Canada and Mexico; His insistence on taking Greenland rich in minerals from Denmark, another ally; And his decision to cut almost all foreign aid to the United States, which the strategists considered an important component of the American soft power.
The grants granted by the national confrontation of democracy focus on promoting democracy, freedom of expression and religious freedoms in more than 100 countries and regions, including those that the Trump administration was the first and Biden administration is competitors or opponents – China, Russia, Blasusia, Iran, North Korea and Cuba.
Grant financing, such as developing programs that allow citizens to display banned web sites and efforts to support the independent press.
One recipient, Monitor Chinese workA group based in New York with foreign offices, monitoring forced workers and trafficking in Chinese workers. Its founder, Lee Qiang, said in an interview that he had not received $ 150,000 from the national endowment of democracy money he was expecting this year, and that most of the funding from the Foreign Ministry was still frozen. He had to rest or put them on an unpaid leave.
Mail Martinez, the former Republican Senator, represented Florida, said that the Trump administration’s desire to release funding for organizations that support dissidents abroad was an insult by exiles from Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. “This entire group of people is politically active,” he said. “Many were strong supporters of the president.”
In Venezuela, the national endowment of democracy gives independent groups that monitor the elections and help provide the legal defense of the dissidents targeted by the authoritarian government.
Republican governments, including Chinese governments and Russia, have them I was denounced Endowment work for many years.
The lawsuit noted that the sudden stopping in financing more recipients for patients who live under an enemy government: “The freezing of endowment funds poses a special danger to the partners who work in very authoritarian contexts, because the sudden interruption in support may expose their operations and employees as gift employees.”
The group follows its assets letter Posted by President Ronald Reagan to the British Parliament in 1982. He pledged that the “March of Freedom and Democracy” will leave Marxism Leninism over the ashes of history. ” Law passed Create a national endowment for democracy in the following year.
Giving gifts is funding for many non -majestic organizations, especially the International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute. These groups also end programs due to the freezing of financing. Many allies of Mr. Trump, including Tom Couton from Arkansas and Dan Sullivan from Alaska, sit at the International Republican Institute Council.
Foreign Minister Marco Rubio, the defendant in the case, is a former member of the Board of Directors.
The Republic Group Website He says she had to disable her operations to provide expenses, but the page aims to remind people of his work: “Dictators are afraid of their people. Helping citizens get a voice in their country at the heart of what IRI is doing.”
Last November, a publication on the account of the group’s social media, which is now exaggerated, congratulated Mr. Rubio that he was chosen to be the Foreign Minister of Mr. Trump and described him as a “pioneering champion of freedom.”
David Super, a professor who studies administrative law at Georgetown University, said that the national endowment of the democracy issue had some similarities with the lawsuit filed by the contracting companies of the American Agency for International Development, and the Trump administration also freezed the funds of that agency. In both cases, Mr. Super said, Congress approved “dedicated laws, speech, and speech.” He said that he blocks the money from the endowment, “It is clear that he violates both slaves.”
