Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has reportedly forced its way inside the U.S. Institute of Peace building – despite the nonprofit making clear that it is an independent agency detached from the executive branch.
“DOGE has broken into our building,” George Moose, the organization's CEO said, according to an Associated Press report. It added that police cars could be seen outside the Washington D.C. building Monday evening.
The unauthorized entry came “after several unsuccessful attempts” earlier in the day, “and after having been turned away on Friday,” according to the report. The DOGE staffers – who arrived Friday with two FBI agents – left only after the nonprofit’s lawyers informed them of the agency’s “private and independent status as a non-executive branch agency,” the institute said in a statement.
“Following that discussion, the DOGE representatives departed,” the agency said Friday.
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It was not immediately clear what business DOGE staffers had inside the institute’s building or what they were looking for once they gained entry.
U.S. Institute of Peace was one of several targeted last month by President Donald Trump’s executive order that sought to reduce the size of the federal government, according to the AP.
“DOGE has expressed interest in the U.S. Institute of Peace for weeks but has been rebuffed by lawyers who argued that the institute’s status protected it from the kind of reorganization that is occurring in other federal agencies,” the AP said.
USIP was established by Congress in 1984 as a nonpartisan, independent organization dedicated to protecting “U.S. interests by helping to prevent violent conflicts and broker peace deals abroad.”