District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, sided with two federal employee associations in agreeing to a pause.

5:30 p.m. EST, Feb. 7 Judge Carl Nichols prevented Trump from placing 2,200 USAID staff on leave while a lawsuit from labor unions works its way through the courts—in what the Trump-appointed judge reportedly called a “limited” move.

A federal judge temporarily barred USAID from putting 2,200 workers on paid leave after employee groups filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s authority to shut down the agency.

The plan would leave fewer than 300 staffers on the job out of what are currently 8,000 direct hires and contractors.

The judge stressed his order was not a decision on the employees' request to roll back the administration’s swiftly moving destruction of the agency.

Federal judge temporarily blocks the Trump administration from placing 2,200 employees of the U.S. Agency for International Development on paid leave.

The judge temporarily barred USAID from putting 2,200 workers on paid leave after employee groups filed a lawsuit challenging the administration’s authority to shut down the agency.

Thursday was supposed to be decision day. But then a federal judge suspended Trump's buyouts for workers until at least Monday.