The simmering dispute between independent agencies dedicated to promoting government efficiency and peace broke into an open standoff involving police on Monday as Elon Musk's government cutter marched to the agency's headquarters and kicked out its officials.
A dramatic scene unfolded in Washington Monday afternoon after Musk's team was rejected by the U.S. Peace Institute. Officials at the agency say Trump and Musk have no authority to thwart the operation because the institute is a congressional certified nonprofit that is not part of the administrative division.
“The Doges have just entered the building – they are inside the building – they brought in the FBI and brought a bundle of DC police,” said Sophia Lin, a research attorney, over the phone as she and other officials were being escorted.
George Moose, who was fired as acting president of the institute last week but is challenging him, has denounced Musk's intrusion. “So what happened here today is an illegal acquisition by elements of the enforcement division of private nonprofits.”
The standoff has become one of the most visible points of resistance to Musk's efforts to fire federal workers and to dismantle the entire agency. And it underscored Trump's willingness to restructure the federal government and promote the legal limits of his authority to place even entities that were traditionally independent under his thumb.
A spokesman for Musk's team directed an investigation into the White House. Executives denounced the institute for failing to comply with the executive order signed by Trump in February, citing one of the four institutes as “excluded to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law,” and directed them to “reduce performance” within 14 days, as the minimum required by law.
The institute was established by Parliament in 1984 and works to prevent and end conflicts, deploy experts to work with allies, train peace negotiators and diplomats, and brief Congress. Since the executive order in February, the website has been updated with additional references to the “cost-effective” nature of the job, with bids to win the favor of Musk's team.
It didn't work. The Institute's leaders and the government's efficiency department had been stabbing their heads at least Friday afternoon when the White House sent an email to all but three board members, excluding three, informing them that they had been fired.
The remaining board members – Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegses, and President of the University of Defense Peter A. Garvin later replaced Moose on behalf of representative president of Kenneth Jackson, a State Department official who was involved in the demolition of the US International Development Agency.
Lynn said the institute is preparing to sue the administration for the removal of the board. Institute officials refuse to recognize these terminations.
Officials from the Government Efficiency Bureau tried to access the agency's headquarters just off the National Mall on Friday afternoon, but representatives from the institute drove them away.
Musk's team reappeared around 7pm on Friday, and accompanied by two FBI agents, presented the institute with documents signed by remaining board members who deleted the institute's representative president. But they left after the institute's lawyers told them it was an independent institution outside the administrative division, Gonzo Gallegos, a spokesman for the institute, said in a statement on Saturday.
Over the weekend, the FBI threatened lab employees with insufficient access to the building, Lynn said.
She also said on Sunday night, Jonathan Honok, the new chief of the Columbia district criminal division, called George Foot, another attorney for the institute, requested access to the institute's “books and records” on behalf of Rubio and Hegses. When the lab resisted, he threatened a criminal investigation, she said. A spokesperson for the U.S. Lawyer's Office did not respond to a request for comment.
By Monday afternoon, a newly posted sign on the door of the building had been warned against trespassing and appeared to have been created in a hurry. One reader informed that the building was “closed until we notified it far.”
Mask representatives arrived Monday afternoon in a black SUV with government plates, and were escorted to what appears to be private security, wearing food stall clothing.
They tried one entrance, but were unable to find an interior path before returning to the SUV, and instead went around the building.
A few minutes later, two lawyers from the laboratory emerged from the building and approached the vehicle. The subsequent windowsill negotiations continued, which appeared to be Musk's car representative, State Department official and president of the newly established agency, Jackson, appearing to ask him to join his lawyer.
“I mean, I don't know where you're going to take us,” Lynn declined, saying.
“We don't want to sit here,” added Foote, the institute's second lawyer, in a mellow, collaborative voice. “We can take a walk. Take a walk and come. It's a good day.”
Behind the car's tinted window, the offer appeared to have been rejected, and negotiations continued as rush hour traffic was backed up behind a stalled vehicle and drivers were placed on top of the corner. The parties appeared to agree to a meeting over video calls.
Musk's team did not enter the building until officers from Washington's metropolitan police station appeared, Lynn said. Institute officials had called police to report members of the government's efficiency department being trespassed, but police instead cleared the laboratory leaders from the building.
Police spokesman Tom Lynch said officers were called to the scene for reports of illegal entrances and police left after those seeking illegal entry were left. He didn't say who those people were and gave no more information about what happened on the scene, except for the fact that no arrests were made.
Two men attorneys, Nate Kavanaugh and Justin Aimenetti, were the same Musk officials who forced them to enter the African Development Foundation, one of the agencies mentioned in the February executive order this month. They did not respond to the questions they cried out.
Members of the Musk team, who are said to work 24 hours a day late on Monday nights, were still in the lab. Jackson could be seen working in the president's office. They delivered dinner: sweet greens and six pizzas.
Eric Lee and Kent Nishimura Reports of contributions.
