A federal judge allowed Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to remain in control of the U.S. Institute of Peace, an independent nonprofit created by Congress, but expressed concern about their conduct.
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell said Wednesday she was offended by DOGE staff's use of threats and law enforcement to gain access to the USIP headquarters and to remove the institute's president, George Moose, from the building on Monday.
But she declined to immediately restore the former board members, who filed the lawsuit late on Tuesday, to their positions. Howell also declined to bar DOGE staff from USIP's headquarters, which they gained access to on Monday in part with the help of the police.
Trump last month in an executive order targeted USIP and three other agencies for closure in an effort to deliver on campaign promises to shrink the size of the federal government.
The institute and many of its board members sued the Trump administration Tuesday, seeking to prevent their removal and to prevent DOGE from taking over its operations.
USIP is a think tank, which seeks to prevent and resolve conflicts. It was created and funded by Congress in 1984. Board members are nominated by the president and must be confirmed by the Senate.
The suit is the latest challenge to the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle U.S. foreign assistance agencies, reduce the size of the federal government and exert control over entities created by Congress.
Among the board members who filed suit is former U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan, who was nominated to the ambassadorial role in Trump's first term and continued to serve as ambassador under President Joe Biden and then was picked by Biden for the board.
The lawsuit accuses the White House of illegal firings by email and said the remaining board members — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Defense University President Peter Garvin — also ousted Moose, a former ambassador and career diplomat at the State Department.
In his place, the three appointed Kenneth Jackson, an administrator with the U.S. Agency for International Development, according to the lawsuit.
In response, government lawyers raised questions about who controlled the institute and whether the nonprofit could sue the administration. It also referenced other recent court rulings about how much power the president has to remove the leaders of independent agencies.
DOGE staff tried multiple times to access the building Monday before successfully getting in, partly with police assistance.
The institute's staff had first called the police around 3 p.m. Monday to report trespassing, according to the lawsuit. But the Metropolitan Police Department said in a statement that the institute's acting president — seemingly a reference to Jackson — told them around 4 p.m. that he was being refused access to the building and there were “unauthorized individuals” inside.
“Eventually, all the unauthorized individuals inside of the building complied with the acting USIP President’s request and left the building without further incident,” police said.
The lawsuit says the institute's lawyer told DOGE representatives multiple times that the executive branch has no authority over the nonprofit.
A White House spokesperson, Anna Kelly, said, “Rogue bureaucrats will not be allowed to hold agencies hostage. The Trump administration will enforce the President’s executive authority and ensure his agencies remain accountable to the American people.”
To the top Democrats on the foreign affairs committees in Congress, New York Rep. Gregory Meeks and New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the “hostile takeover” of the institute was one more sign that Trump and Musk want “to recklessly dismantle historic U.S. institutions piece by piece.”
The leaders of two of the other agencies listed in Trump's February executive order — the Inter-American Foundation, which invests in businesses in Latin American and the Caribbean, and the U.S. African Development Foundation — also have sued the administration to undo or pause the removal of most of their staff and cancellation of most of their contracts.
A federal judge ruled last week that it would be legal to remove most contracts and staff from the U.S.-Africa agency, which invested millions of dollars in African small businesses.
But the judge also ordered the government to prepare DOGE staff to explain what steps they were taking to maintain the agency at “the minimum presence and function required by law.”
___
Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of the AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.
Thalia Beaty, The Associated Press
