The DOGE-affiliated appearing president of the USA Institute of Peace, a Congressionally funded, unbiased suppose tank, has moved to switch the company’s $500 million headquarters constructing to the Normal Providers Administration freed from cost, based on court docket paperwork revealed in a not too long ago filed lawsuit.
Tensions at USIP have been escalating for weeks, beginning when the Trump administration fired the company’s 10 voting board members on March 14 and USIP staffers denied DOGE representatives entry on the entrance door. Three days later, DOGE workers made their approach into the constructing, reportedly utilizing a bodily key from a former safety contractor. The dramatic confrontations culminated in a full takeover, with former State Division official Kenneth Jackson assuming the function of president. As of this previous Friday, most USIP staffers have acquired termination notices.
Former USIP officers have since filed a lawsuit in opposition to Jackson, DOGE, Donald Trump, and different members of the Trump administration, searching for a right away intervention “to cease Defendants from finishing the illegal dismantling of the Institute,” based on the criticism. Whereas US district choose Beryl Howell declined the USIP request for a brief restraining order that might reinstate the institute’s board on March 19, she sharply criticized DOGE’s conquest in court docket.
Courtroom paperwork filed by defendants on Monday reveal the subsequent section of DOGE’s plans for USIP. As of March 25, DOGE staffer Nate Cavanaugh—previously put in at GSA—has changed Jackson because the institute’s appearing president, the paperwork present. They additional state that Cavanaugh has been instructed to switch USIP’s belongings—together with its actual property—to the GSA. The letter detailing these modifications and directions was signed by secretary of protection Pete Hegseth and secretary of state Marco Rubio.
Cavanaugh didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark by WIRED. The lead legal professional for the Division of Justice on this case additionally didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
In a separate undated letter, which was additionally included within the batch of paperwork filed with the court docket, Cavanaugh writes to GSA appearing administrator Stephen Ehikian: “I’ve concluded that it’s in one of the best curiosity of USIP, the federal authorities, and the USA for USIP to switch its actual property situated at 2301 Structure Ave NW, Washington, D.C. 20037, to GSA and to hunt an exception from the one hundred pc reimbursement requirement for the constructing.”
Cavanaugh goes on to estimate that the constructing has a “truthful market worth” of $500 million.
In one other letter included within the lawsuit’s docket dated March 29, Venture 2025 architect and Workplace of Administration and Funds director Russell Vought writes to Ehikian to approve his request “to set the quantity of reimbursement for free of charge for the switch of the USA Institute of Peace’s (USIP) headquarters constructing.”
To state this plainly: DOGE pressured out the administrators and workers of a nonexecutive company, put in one in every of its personal GSA staffers as president, and that particular person is now making an attempt at hand the institute’s $500 million headquarters over to the company he got here from, at zero value.
“The trouble to switch the constructing to GSA is a part of the DOGE playbook to run businesses via a wooden chipper. That’s what they’re attempting to do,” claims George Foote, longtime exterior normal counsel to USIP. “They’re attempting to kill the company, which they don’t have any proper to do.”
Decide Howell will determine whether or not to permit the switch in court docket Tuesday; a broader ruling within the USIP case is anticipated by the tip of the month.
Extra reporting by Matt Giles.