Latest news with #InstituteOfPeace
Washington Post
05-06-2025
- Business
- Washington Post
Elon Musk is gone, but DOGE's actions are hard to reverse. The US Institute of Peace is a case study
WASHINGTON — The staff was already jittery. The raiders from Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency had disposed of the U.S. Institute of Peace board, its acting president and its longtime outside counsel. But until 9:30 p.m. on Friday, March 28, there was hope the damage might somehow be limited. Then termination notices started popping up in personal emails. That was only the start. After ending his sojourn in Washington , Musk left behind a wounded federal government. DOGE's playbook was consistent: Show up physically, take over the facility and information technology systems, fire the leadership and replace it with DOGE associates. Dismiss the staff. Move so quickly that the targets and the courts have little time to react, let alone reverse whatever damage has already occurred. Thousands of workers across the federal government saw the playbook in action over the last four months. But the Institute of Peace, a small, 300-employee organization, is unique: The blitz during its takeover has been, for the moment, reversed in court . The headquarters taken away in a weekend of lightning moves is back in the hands of its original board and acting president. The question they must answer now is a point that U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell made during one hearing: Even a win 'makes no promises' about how difficult or possible it will be to put the Institute of Peace back together. 'A bull in a China shop breaks a lot of things,' the judge said. Nearly three weeks since the judge delivered a win, the institute is slowly trying to reboot. But there are barriers, and winning might not mean full restoration. For other agencies and departments fighting their own DOGE battles, it is a cautionary tale. The Institute of Peace was created by Congress in the 1980s. President Ronald Reagan signed the bill into law in 1985. Described as an independent, nonprofit think tank funded by Congress, its mission has been to work to promote peace and prevent and end conflicts while working outside normal channels such as the State Department. When DOGE came knocking, it was operating in 26 conflict zones, including Pakistan, Afghanistan, Mali and Burkina Faso. The institute was one of four organizations targeted by President Donald Trump's Feb. 19 Executive Order 14217. The order said it was being enacted to 'dramatically reduce the size of the federal government.' The institute's acting president, career diplomat and former Ambassador George Moose, and longtime outside counsel George Foote tried to explain to DOGE representatives that the institute was an independent nonprofit outside the executive branch. That attempt was for naught. At 4 p.m. on March 14, most of the institute's board was fired by email. The lone holdovers were ex officio — Cabinet members Pete Hegseth and Marco Rubio and the National Defense University's president, Vice Adm. Peter Garvin. Within minutes of the emails, DOGE staff showed up and tried to get into the building but failed over the next several hours during a standoff. That, according to court documents, kicked off a weekend of pressure by the FBI on institute security personnel. DOGE returned the following Monday and got into the headquarters with help from the FBI and Washington police officers. Foote thought the local officers were there to expel the DOGE contingent but learned quickly they were not. He, security chief Colin O'Brien and others were escorted out by local authorities. 'They have sidearms and tasers and are saying you can't go anywhere but out that door,' Foote said. 'I had no choice. 'You guys have the guns, and I don't.'' The board filed a lawsuit the following day and asked for a temporary restraining order. Howell expressed dissatisfaction with DOGE's tactics but declined to restore the fired board members or bar DOGE staff from the headquarters. By then a DOGE associate, Kenneth Jackson, had been named as acting president of the organization by the ex officio board members. Employees held out hope that the organization would not be disassembled because Jackson was asking questions as if he might do an assessment of the organization's work, said Scott Worden, director of the Afghanistan and Central Asia programs. The staff knew what he'd done as the head of the U.S. Agency for International Development. Now Jackson was at the Institute of Peace, but they were hopeful 'we would have a process of explanation or review of our work,' Worden said. Then came March 28. The notices came alphabetically. By the time it was finished, shortly before midnight, almost all the institute's 300 employees had been let go. The impact was 'profound and devastating on a few levels,' Worden said. First, employees at the institute are not government employees so they got no government benefits or civil service protections. Insurance also was gone — critical for employees fighting health problems. Partners abroad also suddenly lost their support and contacts. It left 'thousands of partners in a lurch,' he said. The lawyers representing board members in their lawsuit asked for a court hearing as soon as possible to head off rumors of more mayhem to come. But when they walked into courtroom 26A of the E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse at 10 a.m. on April 1, the headquarters and other assets were gone, too. It was, Howell said at the hearing, 'a done deal.' Over the weekend, as workers reeled, DOGE was making personnel changes of its own. Jackson had given way to DOGE representative Nate Cavanaugh, whose name was on the documents that allowed DOGE to take control of Institute of Peace assets and transfer the headquarters — built in part with private donations — to the General Services Administration. Howell was incredulous that it had been accomplished in two days. In court, the Trump administration's attorney, Brian Hudak, laid out the timeline, making clear that the newly named president of the institute had not only been authorized to transfer the property but also the request had gone through proper channels. For the second time, Howell refused to stop the actions. Throughout hearings, Howell struggled with how to describe the institute — whether it was part of the executive branch and under the Republican president's authority. That was central to the case. The government argued that it had to fall under one of the three branches of government and it clearly wasn't legislative or judicial. Lawyers defending the government also said that because presidents appointed the board, presidents also had the authority to fire them. The White House also maintained that despite decades of operation and an annual budget of around $50 million, the institute had failed to bring peace and was rightfully targeted. Howell's May 19 opinion concluded that the institute 'ultimately exercises no Executive branch power under the Constitution but operates, through research, educational teaching, and scholarship, in the sensitive area of global peace.' 'In creating this organization,' the judge said, 'Congress struck a careful balance between political accountability, on the one hand, and partisan independence and stability, on the other.' She added that even if the organization was part of the executive branch, the law that created it set specific steps for firing the board members and none of those had been followed. Because the board was fired illegally, all subsequent actions — including replacing Moose, firing the staff and transferring the headquarters — were 'null and void,' she said in her ruling. The government filed a notice of appeal and asked Howell to stay her order. She said no. The government has requested a stay with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Two weeks later, about 10% of the people who would normally be inside the headquarters, about 25 people, are there, doing maintenance, getting systems running and trying to get to the institute's funding. Any physical damage comes more from inattentiveness than malice — food that spoiled, leaks that went unfixed, popup security barriers needing maintenance. Desks are empty but with paperwork and files strewn across them, left by the speed of the takeover. O'Brien, the security officer, praised the General Services Administration and security managers who tried to keep the building going. But getting systems fully functioning will entail lots of work. 'We're the first ones to get behind the looking glass,' O'Brien said. Foote said those returning continue to try to locate and access the institute's funding. That includes funds appropriated for this fiscal year by Congress and the part of the endowment moved during the takeover. He said transferring funds within the federal government is 'complicated.' The result: Workers are furloughed, and overseas offices will remain closed. Nicoletta Barbera, acting director for the U.S. Institute of Peace's West Africa and Central Africa programs, is one of the furloughed workers. 'We had USIP representatives based in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger that, overnight, were left with no support system from anyone here in HQ,' she said. The programs were focused on preventing terrorism by supporting women and young people, to 'identify signs of radicalization.' Barbera said a recent attack in Burkina Faso ended with 'hundreds of atrocities and deaths.' 'And I couldn't just stop but think, what if I could have continued our work there during this time?' she said. Moose has said the speed at which the organization gets back to work depends on numerous factors, including the appeals process. But, he said, there will likely be lasting damage — 'the traumatic effects this has had on the people who have been impacted by it.' 'And, obviously, that includes our own ... staff members,' Moose said, 'but it also extends to the people with whom we collaborate and work all around the world. That's going to be hard to repair.' ___ This story has been corrected to show the name of the DOGE representative is Nate Cavanaugh, not Nick Cavanaugh.
Associated Press
05-06-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Elon Musk is gone, but DOGE's actions are hard to reverse. The US Institute of Peace is a case study
WASHINGTON (AP) — The staff was already jittery. The raiders from Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency had disposed of the U.S. Institute of Peace board, its acting president and its longtime outside counsel. But until 9:30 p.m. on Friday, March 28, there was hope the damage might somehow be limited. Then termination notices started popping up in personal emails. That was only the start. After ending his sojourn in Washington, Musk left behind a wounded federal government. DOGE's playbook was consistent: Show up physically, take over the facility and information technology systems, fire the leadership and replace it with DOGE associates. Dismiss the staff. Move so quickly that the targets and the courts have little time to react, let alone reverse whatever damage has already occurred. Thousands of workers across the federal government saw the playbook in action over the last four months. But the Institute of Peace, a small, 300-employee organization, is unique: The blitz during its takeover has been, for the moment, reversed in court. The headquarters taken away in a weekend of lightning moves is back in the hands of its original board and acting president. The question they must answer now is a point that U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell made during one hearing: Even a win 'makes no promises' about how difficult or possible it will be to put the Institute of Peace back together. 'A bull in a China shop breaks a lot of things,' the judge said. Nearly three weeks since the judge delivered a win, the institute is slowly trying to reboot. But there are barriers, and winning might not mean full restoration. For other agencies and departments fighting their own DOGE battles, it is a cautionary tale. Targeting an agency aimed at fostering peace The Institute of Peace was created by Congress in the 1980s. President Ronald Reagan signed the bill into law in 1985. Described as an independent, nonprofit think tank funded by Congress, its mission has been to work to promote peace and prevent and end conflicts while working outside normal channels such as the State Department. When DOGE came knocking, it was operating in 26 conflict zones, including Pakistan, Afghanistan, Mali and Burkina Faso. The institute was one of four organizations targeted by President Donald Trump's Feb. 19 Executive Order 14217. The order said it was being enacted to 'dramatically reduce the size of the federal government.' The institute's acting president, career diplomat and former Ambassador George Moose, and longtime outside counsel George Foote tried to explain to DOGE representatives that the institute was an independent nonprofit outside the executive branch. That attempt was for naught. At 4 p.m. on March 14, most of the institute's board was fired by email. The lone holdovers were ex officio — Cabinet members Pete Hegseth and Marco Rubio and the National Defense University's president, Vice Adm. Peter Garvin. Within minutes of the emails, DOGE staff showed up and tried to get into the building but failed over the next several hours during a standoff. That, according to court documents, kicked off a weekend of pressure by the FBI on institute security personnel. DOGE returned the following Monday and got into the headquarters with help from the FBI and Washington police officers. Foote thought the local officers were there to expel the DOGE contingent but learned quickly they were not. He, security chief Colin O'Brien and others were escorted out by local authorities. 'They have sidearms and tasers and are saying you can't go anywhere but out that door,' Foote said. 'I had no choice. 'You guys have the guns, and I don't.'' The board filed a lawsuit the following day and asked for a temporary restraining order. Howell expressed dissatisfaction with DOGE's tactics but declined to restore the fired board members or bar DOGE staff from the headquarters. By then a DOGE associate, Kenneth Jackson, had been named as acting president of the organization by the ex officio board members. Employees held out hope that the organization would not be disassembled because Jackson was asking questions as if he might do an assessment of the organization's work, said Scott Worden, director of the Afghanistan and Central Asia programs. The staff knew what he'd done as the head of the U.S. Agency for International Development. Now Jackson was at the Institute of Peace, but they were hopeful 'we would have a process of explanation or review of our work,' Worden said. Then came March 28. The notices came alphabetically. By the time it was finished, shortly before midnight, almost all the institute's 300 employees had been let go. The actions reverberated The impact was 'profound and devastating on a few levels,' Worden said. First, employees at the institute are not government employees so they got no government benefits or civil service protections. Insurance also was gone — critical for employees fighting health problems. Partners abroad also suddenly lost their support and contacts. It left 'thousands of partners in a lurch,' he said. The lawyers representing board members in their lawsuit asked for a court hearing as soon as possible to head off rumors of more mayhem to come. But when they walked into courtroom 26A of the E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse at 10 a.m. on April 1, the headquarters and other assets were gone, too. It was, Howell said at the hearing, 'a done deal.' Over the weekend, as workers reeled, DOGE was making personnel changes of its own. Jackson had given way to DOGE representative Nick Cavanaugh, whose name was on the documents that allowed DOGE to take control of Institute of Peace assets and transfer the headquarters — built in part with private donations — to the General Services Administration. Howell was incredulous that it had been accomplished in two days. In court, the Trump administration's attorney, Brian Hudak, laid out the timeline, making clear that the newly named president of the institute had not only been authorized to transfer the property but also the request had gone through proper channels. For the second time, Howell refused to stop the actions. Throughout hearings, Howell struggled with how to describe the institute — whether it was part of the executive branch and under the Republican president's authority. That was central to the case. The government argued that it had to fall under one of the three branches of government and it clearly wasn't legislative or judicial. Lawyers defending the government also said that because presidents appointed the board, presidents also had the authority to fire them. The White House also maintained that despite decades of operation and an annual budget of around $50 million, the institute had failed to bring peace and was rightfully targeted. Howell's May 19 opinion concluded that the institute 'ultimately exercises no Executive branch power under the Constitution but operates, through research, educational teaching, and scholarship, in the sensitive area of global peace.' 'In creating this organization,' the judge said, 'Congress struck a careful balance between political accountability, on the one hand, and partisan independence and stability, on the other.' She added that even if the organization was part of the executive branch, the law that created it set specific steps for firing the board members and none of those had been followed. Because the board was fired illegally, all subsequent actions — including replacing Moose, firing the staff and transferring the headquarters — were 'null and void,' she said in her ruling. The government filed a notice of appeal and asked Howell to stay her order. She said no. The government has requested a stay with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. What it looks like now Two weeks later, about 10% of the people who would normally be inside the headquarters, about 25 people, are there, doing maintenance, getting systems running and trying to get to the institute's funding. Any physical damage comes more from inattentiveness than malice — food that spoiled, leaks that went unfixed, popup security barriers needing maintenance. Desks are empty but with paperwork and files strewn across them, left by the speed of the takeover. O'Brien, the security officer, praised the General Services Administration and security managers who tried to keep the building going. But getting systems fully functioning will entail lots of work. 'We're the first ones to get behind the looking glass,' O'Brien said. Foote said those returning continue to try to locate and access the institute's funding. That includes funds appropriated for this fiscal year by Congress and the part of the endowment moved during the takeover. He said transferring funds within the federal government is 'complicated.' The result: Workers are furloughed, and overseas offices will remain closed. Nicoletta Barbera, acting director for the U.S. Institute of Peace's West Africa and Central Africa programs, is one of the furloughed workers. 'We had USIP representatives based in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger that, overnight, were left with no support system from anyone here in HQ,' she said. The programs were focused on preventing terrorism by supporting women and young people, to 'identify signs of radicalization.' Barbera said a recent attack in Burkina Faso ended with 'hundreds of atrocities and deaths.' 'And I couldn't just stop but think, what if I could have continued our work there during this time?' she said. Moose has said the speed at which the organization gets back to work depends on numerous factors, including the appeals process. But, he said, there will likely be lasting damage — 'the traumatic effects this has had on the people who have been impacted by it.' 'And, obviously, that includes our own ... staff members,' Moose said, 'but it also extends to the people with whom we collaborate and work all around the world. That's going to be hard to repair.'
Daily Mail
03-06-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Elon Musk's DOGE nerd army left 'drugs, graffiti, roaches and rats' behind after taking over Institute of Peace
A group of bureaucrats at the Institute of Peace claim their building was ravaged by billionaire Elon Musk 's DOGE agents. George E. Moose, acting president and CEO of the institute, filed an affidavit testifying that employees found it damaged when they returned after DOGE took it over. A photograph of marijuana was posted by Economist reporter Daniel Knowles on the Bluesky social media platform. He said it was provided to him by someone from the institute who found it in the garbage after DOGE left. 'Among other things, they reported evidence of rats and roaches in the building. Vermin were not a problem prior to March 17, 2025,' Moose wrote, adding that employees also discovered 'water leaks, damage to the garage door, and missing ceiling tiles in multiple places in the building.' He also reported evidence that 'someone had scrawled graffiti on one of the outside spaces.' Social media posts showed that the building logo was also removed, but was put back up after officials returned. 'One of the first things DOGE did upon entering the U.S. Institute of Peace was tear down the logo. . . .and one of the first things we did upon recovering the building, was put it back up. It is a heck of a logo, packing a ton of history, culture, and aspiration into a small symbol. Hopefully the institute survives to continue to bring all that to life,' wrote Keith Mines on LinkedIn. The White House did not return a request for comment. The Institute of Peace was founded as an independent, national institution funded by Congress and was established in 1984. The battle over the Institute of Peace is considered one of the most dramatic attempts by DOGE to take control of an organization. Entrenched employees refused to leave the building when ordered to do so. President Trump first signed an executive order that specifically ordered the Institute of Peace reduce its size to the statutory minimum, prompting his administration to fire 11 of the 14 board members. The remaining board members appointed Kenneth Jackson acting president and fired Moose. When agency officials refused to grant DOGE officials access to the building, they returned with FBI agents to gain entry. The White House condemned behavior by Institute of Peace employees after the standoff, describing them as 'rogue bureaucrats.' 'They barricaded the doors. They also disabled telephone lines, internet connections and other IT infrastructure within the building. They distributed fliers internally, encouraging each other to basically prevent these individuals from accessing the building,' White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at the time. 'It's a resistance from bureaucrats who don't want to see change in this city. President Trump was elected on an overwhelming mandate to seek change and implement change. And this is unacceptable behavior.' DOGE employees said the standoff with the Institute of Peace was among the most contentious of its fights with Washington bureaucracy. 'It was by far the least peaceful agency that we've worked with, ironically,' one DOGE agent told Fox News host Jesse Watters in an interview, revealing they found 'loaded guns' in the building. DOGE employees told Fox News they found spending on private jet flights, and a $130,000 contract with the Taliban for 'generic services.' They also said that the chief accountant had deleted over a terabyte of accounting records, which they were able to restore 'That's the definition of a cover up,' Musk said. D.C. federal judge Beryl Howell ruled in May that the Institute of Peace is not part of the executive branch and so the Trump administration illegally removed the president of the organization and staff, while 'probably terrorizing employees and staff at the institute.' 'The President's efforts here to take over an organization outside of those bounds, contrary to statute established by Congress and by acts of force and threat using local and federal law enforcement officers, represented a gross usurpation of power and a way of conducting government affairs that unnecessarily traumatized the committed leadership and employees of USIP, who deserved better,' Howell wrote.
The Verge
30-05-2025
- Business
- The Verge
Despite Musk's stated departure from DOGE (and attempts to
Musk and DOGE don't seem to be going anywhere. talk up his focus on his businesses), sources tell Wired that DOGE-related efforts across federal agencies are 'escalating.' President Trump confirmed on Friday that Musk's 'really not leaving,' either, as the tech billionaire says he expects 'to continue to provide advice.' Maybe he should provide a little advice about pest control next, based on the condition the DOGE team appears to have left the United States Institute of Peace's headquarters in.
Arab News
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Judge denies stay request, lets ruling stand blocking DOGE efforts to shut down peace institute
WASHINGTON: A federal judge on Friday denied the Trump administration's request that she stay her May 19 ruling that returned control of the US Institute of Peace back to its acting president and board. In a seven-page ruling, US District Court Judge Beryl A. Howell said the government did not meet any of the four requirements for a stay, including a 'strong showing' of whether its request could succeed on the merits. Howell reiterated her finding that the Institute is not part of the executive branch and is therefore beyond President Donald Trump's authority to fire its board. She added that the firings also did not follow the law for how a board member of the Institute might be removed by the president. Most of the board was fired in March during a takeover of the Institute by the Department of Government Efficiency. That action touched off the firing of its acting president, former ambassador George Moose, and subsequently most of the staff. The organization's headquarters, funded in part by donors, was turned over to the General Services Administration. In her ruling May 19, Howell concluded that the board was fired illegally and all actions that followed that were therefore 'null and void.' In Friday's ruling Howell also rejected the government's argument that the organization had to fall into one of the three branches of government and since it does not legislate, nor is it part of the judicial branch, it must be part of the executive branch. 'As the Court has previously pointed out, other entities also fall outside of this tripartite structure,' she wrote. Howell also said that the government did not 'describe any cognizable harm they will experience without a stay, let alone an irreparable one.' However, 'as plaintiffs explain, every day that goes by without the relief this Court ordered, the job of putting (USIP) back together by rehiring employees and stemming the dissipation of USIP's goodwill and reputation for independence will become that much harder.' Moose reentered the headquarters Wednesday without incident along with the organization's outside counsel, George Foote. The White House was not immediately available for comment. In requesting the stay the government also requested a two-business-day stay to allow for an appeal to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Howell denied that request.
