Washington, 5 June

The staff was already jittery.

The raiders from Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency had disposed of the US Institute of Peace board, its acting president and its longtime outside counsel. But until 9.30pm. on 28 March, there was hope the damage might be limited.

Then termination notices started popping up in personal emails.

As he departs, Musk is leaving behind a wounded federal government. DOGE's playbook has been consistent: Take over facilities, information technology systems and leadership. Dismiss the staff. Move too quickly for the targets or courts to respond or fix the damage.

Thousands of federal workers have seen the playbook unfold. What makes USIP, a 300-employee organization, unique is the blitz during its takeover has been, for the moment, reversed in court. The headquarters taken away in a weekend of lightning moves is back in the hands of its original board and acting president.

The question they must answer now is a point that U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell made during one hearing: Can USIP be restored? “A bull in a China shop breaks a lot of things,” she said.

As the institute tries to reboot, it's a question for others in their own DOGE struggles.

Targeting an agency aimed at fostering peace

USIP was created by Congress in the 1980s. Described as an independent, nonprofit think tank funded by Congress, its mission has been to work to promote peace and prevent and end conflicts. When DOGE came knocking, it was operating in 26 conflict zones, including Afghanistan.

The institute was one of four organizations targeted by President Donald Trump's 19 February, Executive Order 14217.

Despite conversations to explain the organization's role, most of the Institute's board was fired by email 14 March. The lone holdovers were ex officio — Cabinet members Pete Hegseth and Marco Rubio and the National Defense University's president. Within minutes of the 4pm. emails, DOGE staff showed up and tried to get into the building but were turned back.

That, according to court documents, kicked off a weekend of pressure by the FBI on institute security personnel. DOGE returned the following Monday and got into the headquarters with help from the FBI and Washington police.

Outside counsel George Foote thought the local officers were there to expel the DOGE contingent but learned quickly they were not. He, security chief Colin O'Brien and others were escorted out by local authorities. “They have sidearms and tasers and are saying you can't go anywhere but out that door,” Foote said.

The board filed a lawsuit the following day. Howell expressed dissatisfaction with DOGE's tactics but she let their actions stand.

By then a DOGE associate, Kenneth Jackson, had been named as acting president of the organization by the ex officio board members. The staff knew what he'd done as the head of the U.S. Agency for International Development. Now Jackson was at the institute, but they were hopeful “we would have a process of explanation or review of our work,” said Scott Worden, director of the Afghanistan and Central Asia programs.

Then came 28 March. By midnight, nearly all the institute's employees had been let go.

The actions reverberated

The impact was “profound and devastating,” Worden said. First, employees at the institute are not government employees so they got no government benefits or civil service protections. Insurance also was gone. Partners abroad suddenly lost their support and contacts.

The lawyers representing board members in their lawsuit sought a hearing to head off rumors of more mayhem to come. But when they walked into a courtroom the headquarters and other assets were gone, too. It was, Howell said at the hearing, “a done deal.”

Over the weekend, DOGE had replaced Jackson with fellow DOGE associate Nate Cavanaugh, whose name was on the documents that allowed DOGE to take control of institute assets and transfer the headquarters to the General Services Administration.

In court, the Trump administration's attorney laid out the timeline, making clear the newly named president of USIP had not only been authorized to transfer the property but also the request had gone through proper channels.

Throughout hearings, Howell struggled with describing the organization — whether it was part of the executive branch and under Trump's authority. The government argued it had to fall under one of the three branches of government and clearly wasn't legislative or judicial. Lawyers defending the government also said that because presidents appointed the board, presidents also had the authority to fire them.

Howell's 19 May opinion concluded the institute “exercises no Executive branch power under the Constitution.”

She added that the law that created it set specific steps for firing the board members and none of those had been followed.

The case is now with an appeals court.

What it looks like now

Two weeks later, about 10 per cent of the people who would normally be inside the headquarters are doing maintenance, getting systems running and trying to access the institute's funding. Desks are empty but with paperwork and files strewn across them, left by the speed of the takeover.

O'Brien, the security officer, praised the General Services Administration and security managers who tried to keep the building going. But getting systems fully functioning will entail lots of work.

Foote said some returnees are trying to access the institute's funding, including money appropriated by Congress and the part of the endowment moved during the takeover. He said transferring funds within the federal government is “complicated.” The result: Workers are furloughed, and overseas offices will remain closed.

Nicoletta Barbera, acting director for the U.S. Institute of Peace's West Africa and Central Africa programs, is one of the furloughed workers.

“We had USIP representatives based in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger that, overnight, were left with no support system from anyone here in HQ,” she said.

Barbera said a recent attack in Burkina Faso ended with “hundreds of atrocities and deaths.”

“And I couldn't just stop but think, what if I could have continued our work there during this time?” she said.

Moose has said there will likely be lasting damage — on traumatized staff and relationships with partners around the world.

“That's going to be hard to repair,” he said.