The Nation's Democracy Fund (NED) sued the Trump administration for cutting off funds for overseas democratic buildings, the latest lawsuit from Elon Musk's target.
Litigation The state claims that the Treasury will shut it out of $167 million in funds allocated to Congress for more than a month, unconstitutionally robbing the power of Congress' wallets.
“Last month, the administrative agency denied access to donation to funds allocated to Congress, something that has never happened before in the fund's 42-year existence,” the lawsuit states.
“As a result of the illegal exemption of funds allocated to Congress for donations, donations have experienced a catastrophic cash flow crisis that puts its mission, ability to exist, and the capabilities of its core institutions and grantees at risk,” the complaint reads.
The lawsuit, filed in Washington federal court, is the latest rebellion against the Trump administration's targets of various departments and programs focused on work abroad.
NED funds both the National Institute of Democracy and the International Republican Institute. Although it is an organization belonging to each political party, its main mission is to promote democracy and political freedom overseas.
Neither lab works in the US and provides grants to projects in over 100 countries.
Musk, head of the Government Efficiency Bureau (DOGE), repeatedly signaled the group in a social media post, claiming it was “full of corruption.”
“Ned is a scam,” Musk wrote in a separate post last month.
Musk makes similar claims about the US International Development Agency. The Trump administration has since blocked funding for numerous programs, from people working on public health issues overseas to economic and educational developments designed to combat hunger and stop the flow of movement.
The new lawsuit alleges that NED has not had access to funds two days after Trump's inauguration. The group says they have tried to request a drawdown of about $97 million from their accounts for weeks. The administration says it didn't mandate an additional $72 million Congress in its latest funding bill.
Oka reached out to the Treasury for comment.
NED has already had to throw away 62% of its staff and plans to throw away more than 13%. They also had to suspend 1,300 grant programs around the world.
“Donations are losing skills in key areas such as language, local expertise and technical fields,” says NED “a team that collectively refers to over 45 languages.”
“Losing this expertise means losing access, understanding and important relationships that have been developed over decades,” Suit continues.
The donation is represented by lawyer Donald Veriri, who served as the general of the lawyer during the Obama administration.
Although masks and doges are not named in the lawsuit, the case comes against the backdrop of gusts of lawsuits that challenge the group's efforts to rapidly cut aspects of federal spending.
Some of these challenges have been successful in court, including Wednesday when the Supreme Court of the 5-4 emergency decision rejected the Trump administration's request to lift a judge's order that required public servants to release nearly $2 billion in foreign aid payments.
