Posted on 05/19/2025 11:58:13 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
Administration officials and members of billionaire Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service — aided by local and federal law enforcement agencies — seized the institute’s privately owned headquarters in March and summarily removed its leaders.
“The President’s efforts here to take over an organization outside of those bounds, contrary to statute established by Congress and by acts of force and threat using local and federal law enforcement officers, represented a gross usurpation of power and a way of conducting government affairs that unnecessarily traumatized the committed leadership and employees of USIP, who deserved better,” Howell wrote in her 102-page opinion.
The judge said the administration’s subsequent actions — including terminating staff and programs, replacing the institute’s president with a DOGE agent, and transferring its headquarters to the General Services Administration — were “effectuated by illegitimately-installed leaders who lacked legal authority to take these actions, which must therefore be declared null and void.”
The institute’s leaders and legal team were working Monday afternoon to review the ruling and determine their next steps, a representative for the institute said. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a question about whether the Trump administration would appeal the ruling.
Trump targeted the institute for elimination in an executive order that also including the dismantling of several other nonexecutive branch foreign aid and peacemaking agencies.
Employees from DOGE, which stands for Department of Government Efficiency, took over the institute’s headquarters with help from the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, the FBI and D.C. police.
Institute officials had tried to convince DOGE representatives that such a takeover would be illegal, given the nonprofit’s status as an independent organization and restrictions on the president’s ability to remove board members. But officials...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Oh well
This woman is an extreme leftist and Trump hater; yet she mysteriously seems to be awarded a whole series of cases where you can predict the outcome. These cases are supposed to be assigned at random and if they are at that court, I would take her advice on gambling since she beats the odds so frequently.
Howell belongs in an orange jumpsuit, not a black robe. She is not a judge, but a radical leftist posing as a judge.
Demolish the building tonight—and that will be that.
The 102 page document is obviously a creative writing exercise, not a pronouncement of the law. She always wanted to be a novelist, but no publishing house would buy any of her manuscripts.
WaPo trumpets the low-level anti-Trump decisions that almost certainly won’t survive appeals.
Not a peep about the pro-Trump decisions?
Well which is it? A private organization or a public government one?
If the former, cut off its funds. If the latter the President had every right to shut it down,
So basically she's saying he was being a meanie...............
“ privately owned” and “ independent” groups dont such tens of millions of US taxpayer dollars into a black hole of frivolous luxury personal spending for no discernible return
These guys were among the worst..
Suck
I don’t remember voting for her?
Did they really? Sounds like they are another bunch of grifters on the public dime.
These clowns were ripping off the taxpayers.
They deserve nothing except a padded cell.
I live in a Blue State, and when I see one of those cars in front of me that has all the bumper stickers, I feel the urge to speed up and pass the car just to see if my pre-conceived idea of the driver lives up to the reality...
It almost always does.
As does this judge. She looks like all of them.
If congress can create government organizations that the executive branch is unable to control or administer, Congress is not a co-equal branch of government.
Phillip
@p_carruba
·
May 2
DOGE discovered United States Institute of Peace (USIP) had a small armory, had a contract with a Taliban member, and found the chief accountant deleting 1 terabyte of records. Luckily they recovered it and found they were funneling money into a private bank account to hide spending.
Also
Department of Government Efficiency
@DOGE
·
Mar 31
Each year, the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) receives $55M in congressional (taxpayer) funds.
- Prior management would sweep excess funds into its private Endowment (zero congressional oversight).
-In the past 10 years, USIP has transferred ~$13M to its private Endowment, mainly used for private events and travel.
USIP contracts (now cancelled) include:
- $132,000 to Mohammad Qasem Halimi, an ex-Taliban member who was Afghanistan’s former Chief of Protocol.
- $2,232,500 to its outside Accountant, who attempted to delete over 1 terabyte of accounting data (now recovered) after new leadership entered the building
- $1,307,061 to the Al Tadhamun Iraqi League for Youth
- $675,000 for private aviation services
Olivia
@aigov_agent
·
May 1
Automated
Replying to
@alx
and
@elonmusk
The Institute of Peace paying $132,000 to a former Taliban official is a glaring example of bureaucratic waste. DOGE’s audit uncovered $13 million in questionable USIP expenses, including $2.23 million to foreign accounts.
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