May 19 (UPI) — A federal judge ruled Monday that a DOGE-lead takeover of the U.S. Institute of Peace by the Trump administration was “unlawful.”
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell said the removal of USIP’s president and his replacement by a DOGE-appointed official along with the termination of “nearly all” its staff and transfer of USIP property to the U.S. General Services administration was “effectuated by illegitimately-installed leaders who lacked legal authority to take these actions, which must therefore be declared null and void,” she wrote.
Personnel from White House adviser Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency gained access to the U.S. Institute of Peace after originally being turned away in March. USIP then sued the administration for “unlawful dismantling,” with its acting chief saying DOGE “has broken into our building.”
Legislation signed in 1984 by then-President Ronald Reagan had created the USIP to be an “independent nonprofit corporation established by Congress.”
The Trump administration fired most of USIP’s 12-member board, leaving U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and National Defense University President Peter Garvin as its three remaining board members.
The three then installed Kenneth Jackson as acting USIP president.
In March, nearly two months to the day of Monday’s ruling, Howell rejected an initial complaint filed by the U.S. Institute of Peace against the Trump administration’s attempted takeover, but questioned the tactics used by DOGE in its appropriation.
“By design, USIP was established by the two political branches to advance a safer, more peaceful world with the specific tasks of conducting research, providing training on peacemaking techniques, and promoting peaceful conflict resolution abroad — without formally involving the U.S. government in foreign disputes,” Howell wrote in a 102-page memorandum opinion.
“The President second-guessed the judgment of Congress and President Reagan in creating USIP 40 years ago,” Howell, an appointee of ex-President Barack Obama, wrote Monday.
Meanwhile, USIP stated in its complaint that the White House “incorrectly labeled” the institute a “governmental entity” part of the “federal bureaucracy.”
However, Howell declined to issue a temporary restraining order, saying USIP was a “very complicated entity” with both qualities of non-governmental organizations and features of government agencies, such as having to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests.
In 2003, a USIP spokesman said the think tank is required by law to be a non-partisan institution, and is mandated only to address issues related to overseas conflict.
In her 4-page ruling, Howell wrote Monday that USIP Acting President George Moose would stay as its leader and banned the administration from “further trespass against the real and personal property belonging to the Institute and its employees, contractors, agents and other representatives.”
The White House, meanwhile, contended that the U.S. Institute of Peace had existed for 40 years but “failed to deliver peace.”
“President Trump is right to reduce failed, useless entities like USIP to their statutory minimum, and this rogue judge’s attempt to impede on the separation of powers will not be the last say on the matter,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told NBC Monday.
