Judge rails against DOGE for 'terrorizing' U.S. Institute of Peace after using 'guns and threats' to shut it down

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Last edited Thu Mar 20, 2025, 06:27 AM - Edit history (1)

Source: The Independent

Wednesday 19 March 2025 17:55 EDT


A federal judge was alarmed by allegations that the so-called Department of Government Efficiency provoked a dramatic standoff this week with the U.S. Institute of Peace, culminating in what attorneys for the agency called a hostile “takeover” fueled by threats and harassment. Federal prosecutors have threatened institute officials with criminal prosecution, DOGE members warned that a private security contractor would lose government contracts, and the institute’s president was forcibly removed by several law enforcement agencies – events that attorneys with the Department of Justice have not disputed.

In a hearing in Washington, D.C., Wednesday, District Judge Beryl Howell asked Justice Department attorneys whether Donald Trump’s administration could enforce his executive order seeking to shutter the agency “without using the force of guns and threats by DOGE against American citizens.”

“I mean, this conduct of using law enforcement, threatening criminal investigations, using arms of law enforcement … probably terrorizing employees and staff at the institute, when there are so many other lawful ways to accomplish the goals … why?” she said. “Just because DOGE is in a rush?”

The institute is not a federal agency but an independent nonprofit established by Congress under President Ronald Reagan. Its headquarters in Washington, D.C., is not government property, and its personnel are not federal employees. The institute employs roughly 600 people in the United States and overseas with a congressional mandate to help resolve international conflicts.

Read more: https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/doge-peace-institute-threats-judge-b2718273.html

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The institute is not a federal agency but an independent nonprofit established by Congress under President Ronald Reagan. Its headquarters in Washington, D.C., is not government property, and its personnel are not federal employees.

Operative words highlighted. If the courts allow this, then they can conceivably and forcibly go into any of the "non-white focused" Smithsonian museums and forcibly shut them down. Just. Because.