US Institute for Peace Sues DOGE, Alleges ‘Trespass and Takeover’

DOGE has said it was forced to call the police to enter the USIP building.

The U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington on Jan. 27, 2025. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

The U.S. Institute for Peace (USIP) filed a lawsuit against the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) on Tuesday, accusing it of “literal trespass and takeover” of the congressionally funded organization.

On Tuesday morning, DOGE released a statement on X asserting that USIP’s acting director, George Moose, was removed by USIP’s board of directors and replaced by Kenneth Jackson, who is currently an official in the U.S. Agency for International Development. When the organization attempted to enter the USIP building, an alleged standoff ensued that required police intervention, DOGE added.

Moose, however, told media outlets on Tuesday that USIP is not a federal agency and not located in a federal building. The incident prompted a response from Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) on social media, who wrote that he believes DOGE carried out an alleged “break in” at the USIP building in Washington and that he “will work to stop DOGE’s illegal power grab.”

In a court filing later on Tuesday, USIP’s lawyers alleged that “on March 17, 2025, the attacks culminated in the literal trespass and takeover by force by Defendants, including representatives of DOGE, of the Institute’s headquarters building on Constitution Avenue.”

“Once physically inside the Institute’s headquarters, DOGE personnel and other representatives of Defendants have plundered the offices in an effort to access and gain control of the Institute’s infrastructure, including sensitive computer systems,” the institute said.

The lawsuit was filed against DOGE, Jackson, acting DOGE administrator Amy Gleason, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, President Donald Trump, several other DOGE employees, and National Defense University President Peter Garvin. According to a resolution posted by DOGE on X, Rubio, Hegseth, and Garvin voted to remove Moose and replace him with Jackson.

The institute asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to issue a temporary restraining order to “stop Defendants from completing the unlawful dismantling of the Institute and irreparably impairing Plaintiffs’ ability to perform their vital peace promotion and conflict resolution work as tasked by Congress.”

Its lawyers also want the judge to declare that Moose “lawfully remains the president of the institute” and to declare that Jackson is not. They also want the court to void Trump’s “purported termination of the Board members, including Chairman John Sullivan,” and said that the move “violated the USIP Act and thus has no legal effect.”

“Thus, the Institute’s Board members, including Chairman Sullivan, continued to be duly appointed, lawful members of the Institutes’ Board at the time of the purported meeting of the three ex officio Board members that resulted in the ’resolution' to install Mr. Jackson as acting president,” the lawsuit said.

The Epoch Times contacted USIP and the White House for comment on Wednesday. Several previous requests for comment submitted by The Epoch Times to USIP and Moose were not returned earlier this week.

In an interview with CNN, Moose alleged that DOGE staff “were approaching members of our staff and our workforce to try to intimidate their way into getting into the building.” He said that he was performing the telephone interview with CNN while he was inside his locked office at the USIP building.

“We had not expected that the FBI would succeed in enlisting the support and collaboration of the District of Columbia police, with whom we have had a great relationship,” Moose told the outlet. “Somehow, FBI has managed to convince the D.C. police that this is a building that is owned by the U.S. government and not by the U.S. Institute of Peace.”

USIP’s website says that the institute was created by Congress in legislation that was signed by then-President Ronald Reagan in 1984. The group says its mission is to promote U.S. interests by brokering peace deals around the world, while it receives funding through congressional appropriations and is governed by a board that includes the U.S. secretaries of state and defense.

In an order in February, Trump declared that USIP and several other entities that receive government funding should be reduced to the smallest possible extent under law. Weeks before, Trump created DOGE in a bid to eliminate what both he and Elon Musk, who leads DOGE, say are wasteful and fraudulent government programs, although a number of lawsuits have been filed against the organization’s efforts.