SEATTLE (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from imposing new conditions on hundreds of millions of dollars worth of mass transit grants for the Seattle area or homelessness services grants for Boston, New York, San Francisco and other local governments.
The new conditions were designed to further President Donald Trump's efforts to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion policies; coerce local officials into assisting with the administration's mass deportation efforts; and cut off information about lawful abortions, according to the lawsuit filed last week by eight cities and counties.
The administration argued that Senior U.S. District Judge Barbara Rothstein in Seattle did not have jurisdiction over the lawsuit because it was essentially a contract dispute that should have been brought in the Court of Federal Claims — an argument the judge rejected.
Rothstein wrote that the local governments had shown they were likely to win the case, because the conditions being imposed on the grants had not been approved by Congress, were not closely related to the purposes of the grants and would not make the administration of the grants more efficient.
“Defendants have put Plaintiffs in the position of having to choose between accepting conditions that they believe are unconstitutional, and risking the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal grant funding, including funding that they have already budgeted and are committed to spending,” Rothstein wrote.
Her order blocks U.S. Housing and Urban Development and the Federal Transportation Administration for 14 days from enforcing the new grant conditions or withholding or delaying funding awarded under the grants. The local jurisdictions said they would seek a longer-term block in the meantime.
The Trump administration did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
King County, which includes Seattle, sued over changes to grant conditions for homelessness services as well as mass transit funding that helps pay for maintenance of the region's light rail system. Boston and New York, Pierce and Snohomish Counties in Washington, the city and county of San Francisco, and Santa Clara County in California all sued over the changes to homelessness services grants.
“Today’s ruling is a positive first step in our challenge to federal overreach," King County Executive Shannon Braddock said in a statement. "We will continue to stand up against unlawful actions to protect our residents and the services they rely on.”
The conditions highlighted in the plaintiff's restraining order motion included barring grant recipients from using the funding in a way that promotes “illegal immigration or abets policies that seek to shield illegal aliens from deportation.” Another condition bars them from using the funding to “promote elective abortions.”
AP reporter Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed to this report.
FILE - A homeless person sleeps under a blanket outside an Old Navy store window display in New York, Jan. 11, 2017. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)
FILE - A man stands next to tents on a sidewalk in San Francisco on April 21, 2020. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
FILE - Southbound passengers wait as they look across at a northbound Sound Transit light rail train at an underground station in downtown Seattle, Nov. 6, 2019. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Search teams on Wednesday recovered the cockpit voice and flight data recorders from the jet that crashed and killed Libya’s military chief and other senior officers, while efforts to retrieve the victim's remains were still underway, Turkey's interior minister said.
The private jet carrying Gen. Muhammad Ali Ahmad al-Haddad, four other officers and three crew members crashed in Turkey on Tuesday after taking off from the capital, Ankara, killing everyone on board. Libyan officials said the cause of the crash was a technical malfunction on the plane.
The high-level Libyan delegation was on its way back to Tripoli after holding defense talks in Ankara aimed at boosting military cooperation between the two countries.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya told journalists at site of the crash that wreckage was scattered across an area covering three square kilometers (about 1.2 square miles), complicating recovery efforts. Authorities from the Turkish forensic medicine authority were working to recover and identify the remains, he said.
A 22-person delegation — including five family members — arrived from Libya early on Wednesday to assist in the investigation, he said.
Libyan Prime Minister Abdul-Hamid Dbeibah confirmed the deaths on Tuesday, describing the incident on Facebook as a “tragic accident” and a “great loss” for Libya.
Al-Hadad was the top military commander in western Libya and played a crucial role in the ongoing, U.N.-brokered efforts to unify Libya’s military, which has split, much like Libya’s other institutions.
The four other officers who died in the crash were Gen. Al-Fitouri Ghraibil, the head of Libya’s ground forces, Brig. Gen. Mahmoud Al-Qatawi, who led the military manufacturing authority, Mohammed Al-Asawi Diab, advisor to the chief of staff, and Mohammed Omar Ahmed Mahjoub, a military photographer with the chief of staff’s office.
The identities of the three crew members were not immediately released.
Turkish officials said the Falcon 50 type business jet took off from Ankara’s Esenboga airport at 8:30 p.m. and that contact was lost some 40 minutes later. The plane notified air traffic control of an electrical fault and requested an emergency landing. The aircraft was redirected back to Esenboga, where preparations for its landing began.
The plane, however, disappeared from the radar while descending for the emergency landing, the Turkish presidential communications office said.
The Libyan government declared a three-day period of national mourning. Flags would be flown half-mast at all state institutions, according to the government’s announcement on Facebook.
The wreckage was found near the village of Kesikkavak, in Haymana, a district some 70 kilometers (about 45 miles) south of Ankara.
At the crash site, search and recovery teams intensified their operations on Wednesday after a night of heavy rain and fog, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported. Gendarmerie police sealed off the area while the Turkish disaster management agency, AFAD, set up a mobile coordination center. Specialized vehicles, such as tracked ambulances, were deployed because of the muddy terrain.
Turkey has assigned four prosecutors to lead the investigation and Yerlikaya said the Turkish search and recovery teams numbered 408 personnel.
While in Ankara, al-Haddad had met with Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler and other officials.
Libya plunged into chaos after the country’s 2011 uprising toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi. The country split, with rival administrations in the east and west, backed by an array of rogue militias and foreign governments.
Turkey has been allied with Libya’s government in the west, but has recently taken steps to improve ties with the eastern-based government as well.
Tuesday’s visit by the Libyan delegation came a day after Turkey’s parliament approved to extend the mandate of Turkish troops serving in Libya for two years. Turkey deployed troops following a 2019 security and military cooperation agreement that was reached between Ankara and the Tripoli-based government.
Abuelgasim reported from Cairo. Fatma Khaled in Cairo contributed.
Turkish rescue teams search for the remains of a private jet carrying Libya's military chief and four others that crashed after taking off from Ankara, killing everyone on board, in Ankara, Turkey, Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Efekan Akyuz)
Turkish rescue teams search for the remains of a private jet carrying Libya's military chief and four others that crashed after taking off from Ankara, killing everyone on board, in Ankara, Turkey, Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Efekan Akyuz)
Turkish soldiers and rescue teams search for the remains of a private jet carrying Libya's military chief and four others that crashed after taking off from Ankara, killing everyone on board, in Ankara, Turkey, Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Efekan Akyuz)
FILE - Libya's army chief of staff Gen. Muhammad Ali Ahmad al-Haddad poses for a photo in Tripoli, Libya, Oct. 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Yousef Murad, File)
