A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to release thousands of internal records maintained by the U.S. Agency for International Development, which President Donald Trump has sought to shutter.
U.S. District Judge Amir H. Ali ruled Thursday that USAID “shall produce records at a rate of 500 pages per month” to The Washington Sun. In March, The Sun, which at the time was known as NOTUS, sued the federal government, arguing that it illegally withheld records that are subject to the Freedom of Information Act.
The Sun’s lawsuit stems from a FOIA request Washington Sun Senior Editor Dave Levinthal filed with USAID in November 2024.
The request seeks records detailing how USAID officials anticipated and reacted to the results of the 2024 U.S. presidential election. Shortly after becoming president in January 2025, Trump oversaw the dismantling of USAID, an agency founded during the Kennedy administration that was — until recently — the world’s largest foreign aid agency.
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“The court’s ruling is a clear signal that the public has a right to observe the inner workings of a government agency the president is dismantling,” Washington Sun Editor-in-Chief Tim Grieve said. “We’re committed to fighting for these records until we get them.”
By law, USAID had 20 working days after receiving Levinthal’s FOIA to disclose the scope of the responsive documents it would produce and to detail any plans to withhold documents under legal exemptions.
But until The Sun sued USAID, the agency had done neither. It also routinely ignored requests for updates and status reports. The agency, which in a court filing this month acknowledged possessing “4,707 potentially responsive records,” continues to withhold all records responsive to the request.
The case is titled NOTUS Media LLC & Levinthal v. U.S. Agency for International Development. Law firm Ballard Spahr LLP is representing The Sun.
For press inquiries, email communications manager Thuy Lan Nguyen: thuylannguyen@washsun.com.
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