The work on the #abducted #children by the #Yale School of #PublicHealth #Humanitarian #Research Lab was frozen when #Trump signed an #ExecutiveOrder in late January halting almost all #ForeignAid. Since then, #MarcoRubio & an official under him, #PeteMarocco, have ended the vast majority of foreign #aid contracts, including the one to the Yale lab.

#PeteMarocco, the #State Dept ofcl who oversaw the #Trump admin’s efforts to dismantle the main govt agency distributing foreign #aid, announced in an email on Tues night that he would be replaced at the agency by 2 officials who had been involved in making the cuts.

Marocco said in the email that he would remain at State as director of #ForeignAid, but that 2 other officials would handle what remains of the #USAID.

Contractors were notified of the termination in a memo sent from #USAID's office of Acquisition & Assistance, according to one such letter obtained by NPR. The memo stated that Secy #MarcoRubio & #PeteMarocco "have determined your award is not aligned with Agency priorities & made a determination that continuing this program is not in the national interest."

In his statement to the lower court, #PeteMarocco, who is performing the duties of the dpty administrator of #USAID, said each of USAID's grants had been reviewed & Secy of #State #MarcoRubio decided to eliminate about 92% worth of the agency's grants. The State dept also cut around 4,100 grants. The [#Trump admin is claiming]…a total savings of nearly $60B dollars.

Another fired employee said the hundreds of dismissals meant that the #aid agency now had only a skeleton crew to respond to #humanitarian crises.

The appointee running day-to-day operations at #USAID is #PeteMarocco, a #State Dept official overseeing foreign aid who was a #divisive figure at the agency & other government departments in the first #Trump administration. Early this month, #MarcoRubio announced he was taking over the aid agency as acting administrator.

Rubio tapped #PeteMarocco, the director of foreign assistance at the #State Dept, to begin reviewing all of the work done by #USAID.…

…In early 2023, online sleuths who aided the FBI in cases against hundreds of #Jan6 rioters identified #Marocco & his now-wife as being among the rioters who stormed the Capitol…, pointing to multiple images of them on the Capitol grounds that day & CCTV video that shows…Marocco entering the Capitol through a broken window.

#law #USpol
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/usaid-personnel-told-stay-away-headquarters-elon-musks-shutdown-commen-rcna190405