Leadership at the U.S. Institute of Peace has known for weeks that the Trump administration, as well as Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, had its eyes on them.
But that foresight didn't seem to matter when Washington, D.C.'s local police force escorted them away from the building Monday afternoon — and allowed a new regime to take over.
"We have been talking to them for many weeks now in anticipation of just this possibility and also to remind them that we are a private, nonprofit corporation in the District of Columbia and therefore not a federal agency," George Moose, head of the institute until this week, told reporters on the steps of the building that day. "And therefore, the federal government had no entitlement to come in and take over our building."
Yet the building – with its arched facade across the street from the State Department – became the site of a tense standoff this week between the institute's employees and staffers with the Trump administration and DOGE.
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell denied a request Wednesday by the institute to stop the takeover, saying it was difficult to determine whether the Trump administration's actions were lawful. The judge said a fundamental question remains as to whether the institute, which works to prevent violent conflicts abroad, is an independent agency or part of the executive branch.
DOGE entering in dramatic fashion isn't all that unusual these days: The group – itself not a government agency – is working to gut the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, among others.
What is unusual is that the police got involved – an occurrence Judge Howell said was "deeply troubling."
A routine and unusual call
Both parties called the Metropolitan Police Department for help – putting law enforcement in the middle of the conflict, and prompting questions for how officers arrived at the decision to side with the Trump administration.
At around 4 p.m. on Monday, DOGE and Trump staffers were still trying to enter the building. According to a statement from the police department, that's when the interim U.S. Attorney for D.C., Ed Martin, stepped in.
Because the district does not have statehood, Martin is the district's main prosecutor. He was appointed by the president, and is widely regarded as a Trump loyalist. He did not respond to NPR's request for an interview.
According to the MPD statement, Martin directed police to a letter saying Moose had been replaced. With that letter in hand, the police asked Moose to leave.
The MPD statement detailed more on Martin's direction that day.
"The USAO provided the contact information for the acting USIP President, so MPD members could speak directly with him," the statement said. "MPD members met with the acting USIP President, and he provided the MPD members with documentation that he was the acting USIP President, with all powers delegated by the USIP Board of Directors to that role."
"In some ways this was a fairly routine call," says Vanessa Batters-Thompson, executive director of the D.C. Appleseed Center for Law and Justice. "And in other ways it's very unusual."
Police officers are frequently called to situations where it's not immediately clear who's in the right — for instance, in a fight between a landlord and a tenant.
"Metropolitan Police did what they were trained to do," says Batters-Thompson. "They went into the building. They notified the people who were there that they were now trespassing and they got them to leave peacefully."
A question of weaponizing law enforcement
DOGE has pointed to that letter as its justification for taking over the institute and involving the police, saying Moose acted unlawfully by refusing to comply. Representatives for the group did not respond to NPR's request for an interview.
"George is not the Acting President. He was removed from his position," White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly wrote on social media. "George is actually a career bureaucrat who wants to be unaccountable to the American people. The Trump Administration won't let him."
But the question, Batters-Thompson says, is whether the letter regarding Moose's firing was a valid legal document.
The institute, for its part, is arguing that it is not: The organization has sued the Trump administration, maintaining that it is an independent nonprofit established by Congress, and that the administration did not follow the proper steps to remove its leadership.
Others agree. Democratic Congressman Don Beyer called DOGE's actions an illegal power grab and said it weaponized law enforcement.
"My office has received dozens of calls and emails from concerned neighbors about MPD's involvement," D.C. Councilmember Zachary Parker posted on social media. "I share these concerns."
It also muddles the question of who police should answer to, says Rosa Brooks, a law professor at Georgetown University, who was also an MPD reserve officer from 2016 to 2020.
"For the first time in a very, very long time, street level police officers have to ask themselves whether they're being told to do something that is itself lawful. And that's not normally something police have to worry about," says Brooks. "I don't think they can fully trust the politically appointed people who are giving them direction, which places them in a really impossible position."
She says that question of who to trust is hovering over the heads of police officers in a more vivid way than ever before, especially in D.C. which is tied so closely to the federal government.
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