A federal judge ruled on Monday that the acquisition of the Trump Administration of the United States Institute of the United States was illegal, and the efforts of the Government’s efficiency department to dismantle the agency are “null and null”, according to judicial presentations.
The ruling of the federal judge of DC Beryl Howell says that the unilateral effort of President Donald Trump to dissolve the agency, which works mainly as a group of experts that supports the executive and legislative branches, exceeded its constitutional authorities and violated the statute established by the USIP.
“The president’s efforts here to take care of an organization outside those limits, contrary to the statute established by Congress and by acts of strength and threat using local and federal law officers, represented a gross usurpation of power and a way of carrying out government matters that unnecessarily traumatized the committed leadership and the employees of USIP, which deserved better.” government.
At an audience in March, the officials who were expelled from USIP described in dramatic detail what was essentially a forced acquisition of the agency for officials with Dux, assisted by agents armed with the FBI, members of the DC Police Department and officials of the DCUS law office.
“This realization of the use of the application of the law, threatening criminal investigation, the use of the application of the armed law of three different agencies … to carry out the executive order … with all that approach probably terrifying employees and personnel in the institute when there are many other legal ways of achieving the objectives … why?” Howell asked. “Just because Doge is in a hurry?”
But at that time, Judge Howell rejected an emergency request for the plaintiffs in the lawsuit to restore the Board of USIP, saying that they did not comply with the high legal burden that would guarantee a temporary restriction order.
“I am very offended by how Dege has operated at the Institute and treated US citizens who were trying to do a job that had the legal task at the institute,” Howell wrote in March. “But that concern … is not one that I have to influence my consideration of the factors for a tro.”
A view of the headquarters of the United States Institute of Peace Institute (USIP), March 18, 2025, in Washington, DC
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
In his ruling on Monday, Howell said that USIP is unique in his state, since apparently a mixture between an executive agency and a private non -profit corporation, and that Trump’s aggressive approach to expel the members of his board and replace them with Doge officials seemed to violate a statute that required the approval of the congress.
“The actions that have occurred … at the direction of the president to reduces usip to its ‘statuteory minimums’ – Including the removal of usip’s president, his replacement by officials affiliated with dog, the termination of nearly all of usip’s staff, and the transfer of usip property to the general Services Administration (‘Gsa’), Were Thus Effectuated by Illegitimately-Installed Leaders Who Lacked Legal Authority to Take Set Actions, Which Must Therefore Be Declared Null and Empty, “Howell wrote.
It is likely that the administration appeals the ruling, which makes it one of a series of legal fights on an appeal with respect to President Trump’s removal authorities.
