Trump admin live updates: National Security Agency chief and deputy director fired

A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump's administration from terminating billions of dollars in public health funding.

U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy -- a Trump appointee -- issued a temporary restraining order that bars the Department of Health and Human Services from cutting off $11 billion in COVID-19 related funds.

The order came after a coalition of 23 states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit on Tuesday to challenge the cuts, which they alleged would upend public health public programs that tracked infectious diseases, provided substance abuse services, and supported access to immunizations.

"The result of these massive, unexpected funding terminations is serious harm to public health, leaving Plaintiff States at greater risk for future pandemics and the spread of otherwise preventable disease and cutting off vital public health services," they alleged.

Judge McElroy's order blocking the funding cuts applies for two weeks and she will consider issuing a longer-term injunction later this month. The Democratic officials who brought the lawsuit celebrated the ruling on social media, saying it would temporarily allow funding to continue to their states.

"We're going to continue our lawsuit and fight to ensure states can provide the medical services Americans need," New York Attorney General Letitia James said.

The ruling marks the latest legal setback for the Trump administration, which has fended off more than a hundred lawsuits challenging the president's policies.

-ABC News' Peter Charalambous

Gen. Timothy Haugh, who is the director of the National Security Agency and also heads United States Cyber Command, and his civilian Deputy Director Wendy Noble, were both removed from their positions, a U.S. official confirmed to ABC News.

Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes, who is the ranking Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, requested an explanation as to why Haugh has been removed. “I am deeply disturbed by the decision to remove General Haugh as Director of the National Security Agency. I have known General Haugh to be an honest and forthright leader who followed the law and put national security first—I fear those are precisely the qualities that could lead to his firing in this Administration,"he said.

“The Intelligence Committee and the American people need an immediate explanation for this decision, which makes all of us less safe,” Himes said Thursday evening.

The Washington Post was the first to report the removals of both Haugh and Noble.

-ABC News' Luis Martinez

Entire CDC labs studying outbreaks of sexually transmitted diseases and hepatitis were shuttered this week as part of the sweeping layoffs at the Department of Health and Human Services, two people familiar with the cuts told ABC News.

The lab studying STDs, with about 30 full-time employees and several fellows, led a high-impact program monitoring drug resistance to gonorrhea, a disease notorious for its resistance to many antibiotics, according to someone with knowledge of the lab’s work.

The lab collaborates with state and local labs across the country in its surveillance of STD outbreaks.

“The rest of this operation can’t operate without the lab,” the person familiar with the lab’s work said.

CBS News first reported the layoffs at the two labs.

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett Thursday that he will reinstate some of the laid-off employees, but the people who spoke to ABC News about the STD and hepatitis labs had no indication workers at the lab would be among the reinstated.

-ABC News’ Eric Strauss and Will McDuffie

A coalition of attorneys general from 19 states have filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s recent executive order on election administration, alleging that the order is unconstitutional.

In the suit, which names Trump and other administration members as plaintiffs, the attorneys general argue that the suit is unconstitutional because, among other reasons, it takes away the states’ rights to regulate elections themselves and “treats Plaintiff States as mere instruments of the President’s policy agenda.”

The states that are part of this suit are Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin.

-ABC News' Oren Oppenheim