Providence, Rhode Island - A federal judge on Friday ruled that President Donald Trump's decision to halt the disbursement of funds by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) violated a court order.

US District Judge John McDonnell in Rhode Island found that the funding pause violated an injunction he had previously put in place blocking the Trump administration from pausing FEMA grants, loans, and financial aid.

McDonnell made the ruling after attorneys general from 22 states and the District of Columbia accused Washington of violating the order.

The original ruling issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) stopping the Trump administration from pausing, blocking, or terminating assistance payments by FEMA.

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"Within the weeks after the Court issued the TRO, the States continued to experience freezes of numerous grants and awards that went unresolved even after conferring with the Defendants' counsel," McDonnell wrote in the ruling.

"Thus, FEMA's manual review process violates the court's preliminary injunction order," the judge determined.

McDonnell again ordered FEMA to halt any funding freezes or cancellations and roll back the review process the agency had implemented in an apparent attempt to get around the TRO.

In a move now typical of the Trump administration, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) came out swinging in response to McDonnell's ruling, labeling him an "activist judge" and defending FEMA's cuts.

FEMA "will continue to ensure that US taxpayer dollars are bing used wisely and for mission-critical efforts," a DHS official said.