The pinnacle of the USA Institute of Peace mentioned that when Elon Musk’s so-called Division of Authorities Effectivity took over the group’s Washington, D.C., headquarters, it led to “rats and roaches within the constructing.”
DOGE, an initiative tasked with making drastic cuts to federal spending, fired most of USIP’s board members and laid off practically all of its U.S.-based staff. The nonprofit, which is funded by Congress, was established in 1984 by President Ronald Reagan to advertise worldwide peace.
Kevin Dietsch through Getty Photos
On Monday, a federal choose blocked the Trump administration from transferring ahead with its dismantling of the group, ruling that USIP was illegally taken over by DOGE by means of “blunt pressure, backed up by legislation enforcement officers from three separate native and federal companies.”
In a sworn assertion filed final week, USIP President and Chief Govt Officer George E. Moose, who has reclaimed his title after being fired in the course of the takeover, mentioned he realized the D.C. headquarters had “basically been deserted for a lot of weeks” and weren’t “adequately protected or maintained” whereas DOGE was in cost.
Moose wrote that when he and his group returned to the constructing on Could 21, they discovered that the one folks on web site have been a “woefully inadequate” variety of safety guards and cleansing crew members.
Over the next days, his workers members documented the regarding situation DOGE had left the constructing in, citing “proof of rats and roaches.”
Moose instructed the choose in his assertion that “vermin weren’t an issue previous to March 17, 2025, when USIP was actively utilizing and sustaining the constructing.”
Along with the rodents and roaches, USIP workers reported different upkeep points, together with “water leaks, injury to the storage door, and lacking ceiling tiles in a number of locations within the constructing.” DOGE had additionally failed to take care of automobile boundaries or the constructing’s cooling tower, he mentioned.
Moose additionally famous that “somebody had scrawled graffiti on one of many outdoors areas” within the days earlier than he and his group regained management of the constructing.
He has since engaged a personal safety agency to protect the premises, and has taken over accountability for the constructing’s upkeep.