The Trump administration has "not complied" fully with a court order pausing a freeze on foreign aid, a federal judge ruled Thursday evening. The big picture: U.S. District Court Judge Amir Ali decided not to hold the State Department,

The Washington, D.C., district court judge said administration officials had used his Feb. 13 order to temporarily lift the freeze on foreign aid to instead “come up with a new, post-hoc rationalization for the en masse suspension” of funding.

A federal judge delivered a stern warning to the Trump administration that it must abide by a court order to unfreeze foreign-aid funding, but he stopped short Thursday of holding administration officials in contempt of court for continuing to hold up some of the money.