The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Monday to prevent paying out billions in foreign aid funds.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals issued an order Friday directing the administration to release nearly $4 billion in foreign aid, which President Donald Trump previously notified Congress he would withhold.

Solicitor General John Sauer wrote in the emergency application that this poses a “grave and urgent threat to the separation of powers.”

“To have any hope of complying in time, the Executive Branch would have to immediately commence diplomatic discussions with foreign nations about the use of those funds—discussions the President considers counterproductive to foreign policy—and notify Congress about planned obligations that the President is strongly opposing,” the emergency application states.

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