On Thursday afternoon, the U.S. Agency for International Development’s director of employee relations, Nicholas Gottlieb, sent a message to a group of nearly 60 senior agency executives. Days earlier, they’d been placed on administrative leave by USAID’s Acting Administrator Jason Gray — and now, Gottlieb said he was undoing that move.
The executives had been accused of “circumvent[ing] the President’s Executive Orders and the mandate from the American people,” following Trump’s mandate to freeze U.S. foreign assistance and halt almost all USAID-funded programs and activities. The staff members are still employed with the agency, but unable to work while their actions are under review — and it’s unclear how long their leaves will last.
“Attached, please find a memorandum documenting the cancellation of your administrative leave status under my authority,” Gottlieb wrote in the email, which was later obtained by Devex. “Before you get your hopes up, your systems accesses remain severed; you may receive another email within the day reinstating your leave status. However, that notice will not come from me.”
About the author
Elissa Miolene
Elissa Miolene reports on USAID and the U.S. government at Devex. She previously covered education at The San Jose Mercury News, and has written for outlets like The Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, Washingtonian magazine, among others. Before shifting to journalism, Elissa led communications for humanitarian agencies in the United States, East Africa, and South Asia.
