White House says some employees were fired by mistake

Jacqueline Devine, a behavioral scientist who worked with USAID on HIV and AIDS prevention and treatment as a contractor, lost her job on Jan. 28. She received no advance notice and no severance.

"We all want to be more efficient and more effective. Yeah, nobody's contesting that, but an outright stop before you do any kind of critical review, just seems ... honestly, I got to use the word cruel," Devine said in an interview with ABC News.

Devine worries about the "trickle down" impact for global health as USAID is dismantled. But she also worries for her own career prospects, saying there are some moments where she's "freaked out, and I wake up and I can't fall back asleep because I'm thinking about, you know, what do I do at 65? My sector, my entire field, is gone. Where do I find work?"

Devine also said she's tried to avoid seeing Elon Musk's rhetoric about USAID.

"It would be laughable if it weren't -- the human impact to hear some of this," she said. "But it's hurtful to be called … 'crooks, we're crooks,' and, I'm sorry. I've, you know, put in an honest day's work, and everybody I know puts in more than an honest day's work, too."

-ABC News' Cheyenne Haslett and Meghan Mistry

A federal judge in Rhode Island granted a "motion for enforcement" of a temporary restraining order he signed last month that blocked the Trump administration's spending freeze.

"The States have presented evidence in this motion that the Defendants in some cases have continued to improperly freeze federal funds and refused to resume disbursement of appropriated federal funds," Judge John McConnell Jr. wrote on Monday.

"These pauses in funding violate the plain text of the TRO," he added.

In the filing, McConnell said the administration "must immediately end any federal funding pause" until he decides whether to issue a preliminary injunction.

"The Defendants now plea that they are just trying to root out fraud," McConnell added. "But the freezes in effect now were a result of the broad categorical order, not a specific finding of possible fraud. The broad categorical and sweeping freeze of federal funds is, as the Court found, likely unconstitutional and has caused and continues to cause irreparable harm to a vast portion of this country."

-ABC News' Laura Romero

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries established a group called "Rapid Response Task Force and Litigation Working Group" to respond to Trump's overhaul of the federal government. Colorado Rep. Joe Neguse will lead the group.

"We are engaged in a multifaceted struggle to protect and defend everyday Americans from the harm being inflicted by this administration. As outlined last week, it's an all hands on deck effort simultaneously underway in Congress, the Courts and the Community," Jeffries wrote to his colleagues.

This is yet another effort by House Democrats, who are in the minority in the House and have little power, to push back against the administration. Their work could lead to future litigation.

-ABC News' Lauren Peller

In a new press release, the White House said that the "weaponization" of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) "ends right now."

They allege the agency has "long functioned as another woke, weaponized arm of the bureaucracy that leverages its power against certain industries and individuals disfavored by so-called 'elites.'"

The White House pointed to reports that the agency supported "radical advocacy groups" and also referenced reports about the agency's data collection among other actions. It claims the agency "granted itself broad new powers" under the Biden administration, arguing it was "government overreach" in regards to the agency's action on removing medical debt from credit reports.

– ABC News' Michelle Stoddart