Federal Judge Declines to Block Firing of US Institute of Peace Leadership

A federal judge on March 19 decided not to block the Trump administration from firing the leadership of the U.S. Institute for Peace (USIP) and replacing them with an official from the U.S. Agency for International Development.

USIP and five of its board members had sued the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an advisory body renamed by President Donald Trump to reduce government waste and spending, alleging that the government illegally fired its 10 acting board members—all of whom were presidentially appointed and confirmed by the Senate.

The suit also names Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and a host of other government officials, including Vice Admiral Peter A. Garvin, president of the National Defense University.

Hegseth, Rubio, and Garvin are all technically members of USIP’s board but they are “ex-officio” members. This means their board seats were given to them as part of their role in the executive branch of the government.

The institute says it is an independent nonprofit corporation and not actually part of the federal government but was falsely targeted for reduction in Trump’s Feb. 19 executive order, titled Commencing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy. That order called for a downsizing of USIP “to the minimum presence and function required by law.”

While USIP is not part of the federal government, it does receive federal funding.

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After the 10 acting board members were fired, the remaining three members replaced the acting director, George Moose, with a new president, Kenneth Jackson, an official from U.S. Agency for International Development.

Its statutes say that the board members can only be removed by the U.S. president “in consultation with the Board, for conviction of a felony, malfeasance in office, persistent neglect of duties, or inability to discharge duties.”

A board member may also be removed by a vote of eight other board members, or with a majority vote from members of the House Committees on Foreign Affairs and Education and Labor and the Senate Committees on Foreign Relations and Labor and Human Resources.

None of these procedures were followed, all plaintiffs stated.

Brian Hudak, attorney for the government, said that Trump reserved the power to remove the board members based on a declaration made by President Ronald Reagan when he created USIP by signing the Defense Authorization Act of 1985.

“I have been advised by the Attorney General that [the statute], relating to the President’s power to remove members of the Board of Directors of the Institute, is neither intended to, nor has the effect of, restricting the President’s constitutional power to remove those officers,” Reagan said at the time.

U.S. District Judge Beryl Alaine Howell said she was unsure how much legal force Reagan’s statement carried.

The plaintiffs had asked the judge to block DOGE from accessing the institute’s electronic records or cutting off its funding. They also asked her to reinstate USIP’s board and its president.

Judge Howell said the plaintiff’s motion was somewhat “confused” and their case not likely to succeed, because they sued in their personal capacity as members of the board, and were not likely to suffer irreparable harm.

However, the judge took the government to task for the way in which the executive order was carried out, calling it “terrorizing” and “abominable.”

The judge’s condemnation comes after DOGE attempted to enter USIP headquarters on March 14 but were turned away.

It was after this incident that Hegseth, Rubio, and Garvin fired Moose and replaced him with Jackson.

Two days later, USIP’s legal counsel, George Foote, was warned by officials from the government that they “would criminally investigate USIP and anyone who obstructed their access to USIP’s computer systems.”

That evening, two members of the FBI showed up unannounced at the home of the institute’s security manager, looking for a way into the building.

Moose alleged that the government also sought help to get into the building with the aid of Inter-con, a former security company that still had a physical key. USIP’s attorney alleged that government officials had threatened to cancel all of Inter-con’s other government contracts if they did not comply.

Moose said he noticed the Inter-con employees asked them to leave and ordered a full lockdown of the building, Later, D.C. Metro police arrived with Jackson to escort the DOGE employees in, and to remove Moose from the premises.