By Mike Scarcella, Tim Reid and Humeyra Pamuk
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A federal judge on Wednesday allowed the takeover of the U.S. Institute of Peace by tech billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, after USIP accused members of Musk’s team of occupying the building by force.
The emergency ruling came after members of Musk’s team on Monday gained access with the help of police officers to USIP, an independent, nonprofit organization funded by the U.S. Congress and whose Washington headquarters sits just across the street from the U.S. State Department.
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell said while she was troubled by the way DOGE had entered USIP with armed police, she was not going to order a temporary halt to DOGE’s actions because there was too much confusion in the institute’s emergency lawsuit.
“I have to say I am offended on behalf of the American citizens,” Howell said, referring to the way in which DOGE had entered USIP. She said USIP staff had been treated “abominably.”
Howell said, however, that USIP had not met the high bar for a temporary restraining order, but she wanted to have another hearing on the issue.
After a dramatic standoff in which a handful of USIP staff initially locked all the doors to the building to prevent DOGE agents getting access on Monday, the agents, with the help of police, expelled the institute’s president, several staffers and an attorney from the building.
Howell described as “terrorizing” the use of armed law enforcement.
A White House spokesperson said in a statement before the ruling that President Donald Trump was enforcing his authority as president and that “rogue bureaucrats will not be allowed to hold agencies hostage.”
The move by Musk’s team is the latest and potentially most aggressive example of DOGE taking over a building as part of Trump’s push to slash the size of government by reducing the 2.3-million strong federal workforce and lowering costs.
USIP in its lawsuit called DOGE’s entry into the building “literal trespass and takeover by force.”
(Reporting by Mike Scarcella, Tim Reid and Huymera Pamuk, editing by Ross Colvin and Diane Craft)
