DOGE enters Institute of Peace amid staff resistance
An Institute of Peace security official said DOGE pressured a contractor to gain entry.
Written by Ben Johansen
03/19/2025 01:52 PM EDT
A security official at the U.S. Institute of Peace said the DOGE team on Monday evening surreptitiously gained entry to the facility, the most aggressive known attempt by the Trump administration to enter an organization.
The scuffle between DOGE officials and U.S. Institute of Peace staff prompted nearly a dozen police officers to respond and raised fresh questions about the tactics the government-trimming agency will use to enter government buildings and exert control over agencies.
On Monday, four members of the security contracting firm Inter-Con used a master key to try to allow DOGE officials into the building, according to Colin O’Brien, head of security at the USIP. Inter-Con had a contract to provide security for USIP through Friday and the master key was not returned, he said.
Inter-Con Vice President Derrick Hanna informed O’Brien and USIP outside counsel George Foote that DOGE had contacted them and “threatened all of their federal contracts if they did not permit entry for DOGE,” O’Brien said in an interview with POLITICO and separately in court documents filed by USIP Wednesday morning challenging DOGE’s authority to take control of USIP.
“On camera, members of DOGE ran up to the building and attempted to follow those Inter-Con employees into the building and gain entrance,” O’Brien said.
Foote said in a court declaration filed Wednesday morning that he told the Inter-Con staff that they were trespassing. “They ignored this and proceeded to walk toward USIP’s gun safe,” he said. D.C. District Judge Beryl Howell will hold a hearing Wednesday afternoon regarding the incident.
Neither Inter-Con nor DOGE returned multiple requests for comment.
O’Brien called the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department and was met with several police officers, including two high-ranking officers, as well as a large team from DOGE, the Elon Musk-led group that has upended Washington. They were also joined by Kenneth Jackson, a State Department official who was recently appointed acting USIP president, after a Trump administration takeover of the independent entity.
The police allowed DOGE officials entry and detained O’Brien, Foote and his co-counsel, Sophia Lin, at Jackson’s direction, according to O’Brien. The brief police report says “unwanted individuals” exited “without incident.”
Foote, Lin and Jackson could not be reached for comment.
There are conflicting accounts as to why the MPD took this course. In a statement, the MPD said that it was contacted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office regarding the incident, arguing that Jackson had authority and there was at least one person refusing to leave the property at Jackson’s direction.
The USIP employees argue the institute, as an organization funded by Congress, is not part of the executive branch and should not be subject to Trump’s order.
The mandate of USIP, which employs several hundred people, is to prevent violent conflicts and broker peace deals abroad. Trump on Feb. 19 signed an executive order demanding USIP be reduced to its “statutory minimum.”
White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly said USIP employees did not comply with that executive order, prompting the removal of board members and the appointment of Jackson.
“Rogue bureaucrats will not be allowed to hold agencies hostage,” she added. “The Trump administration will enforce the President’s executive authority and ensure his agencies remain accountable to the American people.”
This wasn’t the first time USIP and DOGE employees had met. Five DOGE representatives and two FBI agents came to the building last week unannounced. Foote and O’Brien told them they had no jurisdiction because the institute is independent and not part of the executive branch.
USIP staff got an email from an external source signed by Jackson on Tuesday, amid the DOGE takeover, saying: “We are working hard to ensure a smooth leadership transition.” They were instructed to complete a form, with failure to complete it “may result in adverse action.”
O’Brien, along with other USIP employees at the building Monday, was not able to collect his personal belongings before his removal.
His car is still in the Institute of Peace garage.
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Filed under: Donald Trump, Elon Musk, DOGE
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