DOGE officials enter US Institute of Peace

The Department of Government Efficiency has entered the US Institute of Peace despite arguments from the nonprofit that it is not part of the executive branch but is an independent agency. Police vehicles were seen outside the building in Washington on Monday evening.

The organisation's CEO, George Moose, said, “DOGE has broken into our building.”

DOGE workers accessed the building after having been turned down on Friday and numerous failed attempts on Monday, a senior official told AP of the institute on condition of anonymity.


However, it was not clear as to what the DOGE officials were looking for in the building.

In an executive order aiming to cut the size of the federal government, President Donald Trump had targeted the organisation. The administration, since February 19, has moved to fire and cancel programs at some of those organisations.

The US Institute of Peace was on DOGE's radar for weeks but was rebuffed by lawyers who argued that the institute’s status protected it from the kind of reorganisation that is occurring in other federal agencies.

On Friday, DOGE officials had reached the building along with two FDI agents, who left after the institute's lawyer told them of USIP’s “private and independent status,” the organization said in a statement.

On its website, the US Institute of Peace says that it is a nonpartisan, independent organization “dedicated to protecting US interests by helping to prevent violent conflicts and broker peace deals abroad.”

The nonprofit claims 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."