To be frank, before yesterday I had never heard of the United States Institute of Peace. I suspect the same may be true for many of you, although I’ve no doubt that there will be someone who believes they know everything there is to know about it. According to its website, it exists by “unique” congressional mandate.
Congress founded the U.S. Institute of Peace in 1984 as a nonpartisan, independent organization dedicated to protecting U.S. interests by helping to prevent violent conflicts and broker peace deals abroad.
Congress provided USIP with a unique status to enable the organization to operate in sensitive areas where diplomats and military units are often constrained for practical or political reasons.
What does “unique status” mean? That’s left unexplained, although its governance hardly seems unconventional.
USIP is governed by a bipartisan, Senate-confirmed Board of Directors that includes the Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, and President of the National Defense University, ensuring close alignment between each administration’s national security objectives and our work.
Nonetheless, when the Muskrats appeared at its door, they were refused entry.
The dramatic scene played out in Washington on Monday afternoon as Mr. Musk’s team was rebuffed from the U.S. Institute of Peace, an agency that President Trump has ordered dismantled, then entered it with law enforcement officers. Agency officials say that because the institute is a congressionally chartered nonprofit that is not part of the executive branch, Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk do not have the authority to gut its operations.
Imagine the DOGE boys demanding entry into the Supreme Court building, which is unquestionably not under the Executive Branch umbrella, even though the money that pays for it comes from the same federal treasury as the rest of government. Was the Institute Of Peace similarly beyond the reach of the co-president? Was its formation by Congress so unique as to empower its staff to deny the Muskrats entrance?
No matter how good a question that may be, it doesn’t matter because another arm of the Executive branch, this one holding guns, decided to involve itself in the dispute.
“DOGE just came into the building — they’re inside the building — they’re bringing the F.B.I. and brought a bunch of D.C. police,” Sophia Lin, a lawyer for the institute, said by telephone as she and other officials were being escorted out
George Moose, who was fired as the institute’s acting president last week but is challenging his dismissal, accused Mr. Musk’s team of breaking in. “Our statute is very clear about the status of this building and this institute,” he told reporters. “So what has happened here today is an illegal takeover by elements of the executive branch of a private nonprofit corporation.”
The Institute Of Peace was one of the agencies Trump marked for elimination by Executive Order. Whoever is running the government apparently was aware of its existence, as it’s almost certain that Trump wasn’t. Whether they were similarly aware of its “unique status” is another matter, and one unlikely to ever be answered. It was on the chopping block, so DOGE showed up with its ax.
Mr. Musk’s team showed up again around 7 p.m. on Friday, accompanied by two F.B.I. agents, and showed the institute a document signed by the remaining board members that removed the institute’s acting president. But they left after a lawyer for the institute told them it was an independent agency outside the executive branch, Gonzo Gallegos, an institute spokesman, said in a statement on Saturday.
But they came back, this time with muscle.
Musk representatives arrived on Monday afternoon in a black SUV with government plates and were escorted by what appeared to be private security who arrived in separate vehicles and were dressed in street clothing.
After some “negotiations” between lawyers for the Institute Of Peace and the “newly installed president,” that went nowhere, D.C. police were called to stop the unlawful attempt at entry.
Mr. Musk’s team did not get into the building until officers from Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department showed up, Ms. Lin said. Institute officials had called the police to report that Department of Government Efficiency members were trespassing, she said, but the police instead cleared institute leaders from the building.
Of course, who was trying to unlawfully enter the building is a matter of perspective. The police decided it was the Institute staff who were trespassing and the Muskrats who were in the right.
A police spokesman, Tom Lynch, said that officers were called to the scene on a report of an unlawful entry and said the police left after the people who were seeking unlawful entry had left. He did not say who those people were or provide more information on what happened at the scene aside from the fact that no arrests had been made.
There is, of course, a mechanism by which issues such as the authority of the Executive branch over an independent agency with “unique status” can and should be resolved. That’s why they build courthouses. But rather than turn to the legal system, DOGE turned to the FBI, who may or may not have been their suited muscle since no one is talking about such things these days, until the D.C. police decided that it was a far better choice to back the other guys with guns than stand up for the staff of the Institute Of Peace. A shootout between the fibbers and cops would have been unseemly, not to mention potentially dangerous.
As earlier noted, when the resolution of authority and rights depends not on law but on force, the options are limited. It may well be that the Institute Of Peace is outside the realm of the Executive branch, and that DOGE has no authority to enter or take any action with regard to its functions. It may be that the Muskrats’ entrance into the Institute was little different than a thief in the night breaking into a home.
But it no longer matters, because the guys with the guns were there to back up the Muskrats, whether they were exercising valid presidential authority or breaking and entering. Lawful authority no longer matters when the price is a bullet from someone who is supposed to be on your team.
This is a nightmare. Our entire system of government is built around the concept that our elected representatives (especially the president) will respect the law and Constitutional order. When they start sending guys with guns to shut down agencies they have no authority over, how soon until they start sending them to the homes of private citizens they don’t like? SHG, you might want to make sure you’ve got ammo on hand for that shotgun of yours.
[Ed. Note: Not enough, I fear.]
I’m disappointed that they didn’t choose “Ministry” instead of “Institute”.
I will grant, that the President was rude, for sending in the cops. He should have waited until everyone left at 5:00 and just changed the locks. But this raises interesting questions: 1. Since this institute is established to conduct, literally, foreign policy, does it not fall under the executive branch? 2. Or does the Congress have authority to create its own little executive branch to conduct foreign policy? 3. Is this really a matter for the courts since, foreign policy is a exclusively the prerogative of the executive branch? 4. Or, do the courts even have say, over what part of Foreign policy is for the Congress to conduct and for the President to conduct?
[Ed. Note: While I ordinarily would have trashed this comment as too stupid for posting, I posted it as a reminder that this is not a “ask lawyers stupid questions” blog, so don’t do this if you don’t want your comment trashed. Did I mention it was too stupid for posting?]
This is the first time I have heard the term “Muskrats” and I love it, I bet the DOGE agents love it too.
Put it on a T-shirt and I will buy it.
There is nowhere for the DeepState to hide, wherever they go the Muskrats will find them. :):):):):):):)
A lawprof writing for a general audience said, “The U.S. Constitution is an honor-code system. We have always relied on good faith that no one will break the pact.”
Wired reported, “DOGE forced out the directors and staff of a nonexecutive agency and installed one of its own GSA staffers as president, and that person is now attempting to hand the institute’s $500 million headquarters over to the agency he came from, at zero cost.” I did not see that coming.