Admin, DOGE Guts Board of USIP         03/18 06:15

   

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Trump administration fired most of the board of the 
U.S. Institute of Peace and sent its new leader into the Washington 
headquarters of the independent organization on Monday, in its latest effort 
targeting agencies tied to foreign assistance work.

   The remaining three members of the group's board -- Defense Secretary Pete 
Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Defense University 
President Peter Garvin -- fired President and CEO George Moose on Friday, 
according to a document obtained by The Associated Press.

   An executive order that President Donald Trump signed last month targeted 
the organization, which was created by Congress over 40 years ago, and others 
for reductions.

   Current USIP employees said staffers from Elon Musk's Department of 
Government Efficiency entered the building despite protests that the institute 
is not part of the executive branch. USIP called the police, whose vehicles 
were outside the building Monday evening.

   USIP is a congressionally funded independent nonprofit that works to advance 
U.S. values in conflict resolution, ending wars and promoting good governance.

   Moose vowed legal action, saying that "what has happened here today is an 
illegal takeover by elements of the executive branch of a private nonprofit."

   He said the institute's headquarters, located across the street from the 
State Department, is not a federal building. Speaking to reporters after 
leaving the building, Moose noted that "it was very clear that there was a 
desire on the part of the administration to dismantle a lot of what we call 
foreign assistance, and we are part of that family."

   The DOGE workers gained access after several unsuccessful attempts Monday 
and after having been turned away Friday, a senior U.S. Institute of Peace 
official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity due to the 
sensitivity of the matter.

   Trump targeted the organization and a few others in a Feb. 19 executive 
order that aims to shrink the size of the federal government. The 
administration has since moved to fire and cancel programs at some of those 
organizations, following its dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International 
Development and slashing of other agencies, including the Education Department.

   White House spokesperson Anna Kelly pointed to USIP's "noncompliance" with 
Trump's order.

   After that, "11 board members were lawfully removed, and remaining board 
members appointed Kenneth Jackson acting president," she 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."

   Jackson had been seen earlier Monday trying to get into the nonprofit's 
building.

   Moose said the organization had been speaking with DOGE since last month, 
trying to explain its independent status. Speaking of Trump, he said, "I can't 
imagine how our work could align more perfectly with the goals that he has 
outlined: keeping us out of foreign wars, resolving conflicts before they drag 
us into those kinds of conflicts."

   DOGE has expressed interest in the organization for weeks but had been 
rebuffed by lawyers who argued that the institute's status protected it from 
the kind of reorganization that is occurring in other federal agencies.

   On Friday, DOGE members arrived with two FBI agents but left after the 
institute's lawyer told them of USIP's "private and independent status," the 
organization said in a statement that day.

   Chief of security Colin O'Brien said police on Monday helped DOGE members 
enter the building and that the private security team for the organization had 
its contract canceled.

   The nonprofit says it was created by Congress in 1984 as an "independent 
nonprofit corporation," and it does not meet U.S. Code definitions of 
"government corporation," "government-controlled corporation" or "independent 
establishment."

   Also named in Trump's executive order were the U.S. African Development 
Foundation, a federal agency that invests in African small businesses; the 
Inter-American Foundation, a federal agency that invests in Latin America and 
the Caribbean; and the Presidio Trust, which oversees a national park site next 
to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

   The African Development Foundation, which also unsuccessfully tried to keep 
DOGE staff from entering its offices in Washington, went to court, but a 
federal judge ruled last week that removing most grants and most staff would be 
legal. The president of the Inter-American Foundation sued Monday to block her 
firing in February by the Trump administration.