U.S. Institute of Peace staff is laid off, escalating legal battle with Trump administration

The U.S. Institute of Peace, a government-funded think tank, has terminated nearly all of its U.S.-based employees and is drawing up plans to fire its remaining overseas employees, escalating an ongoing legal battle over whether President Trump has the authority to dismantle organizations created and funded by Congress.

The firings come after a federal judge declined to block the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) group from taking control of the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) earlier this month.

The termination notices, sent out starting around 9 p.m. on Friday to more than 200 USIP employees, are effective immediately, according to five USIP employees who received the letters. They all spoke to NPR on condition of anonymity, because all had also been given a confidential severance offer of two to four weeks’ pay if they waived all rights to take legal action against the think tank.

Staffers were told to sign up for 15-minute windows to go to USIP’s Washington, D.C. office to retrieve their belongings. Dozens of overseas employees and contractors have also been notified that they must submit plans on moving themselves to a “safe” location by April 9, after which they also expect to be fired, according to the employees.

Seven former USIP board members are currently suing Trump administration officials installed on the think tank’s new board, accusing them of trespassing and “takeover by force.”

“The dismissal of U.S. Institute of Peace employees in the dark of night is unconscionable and deeply troubling,” said George M. Foote, an outside counsel for the institute who is supporting the fired board members, in a statement. He also vowed to continue to fight to “reverse the Administration’s unlawful attempt to dismantle the Institute.”

More court hearings over the lawsuit are set for April.

A think tank under siege

In February, Trump ordered the USIP to effectively shut down its operations as part of a wider effort to drastically downsize the federal government.

USIP management immediately began preparing for a hostile effort to shut down operations, drawing lessons from how DOGE had shuttered wholesale the U.S. Agency of International Development (USAID) just weeks earlier, according to two employees.

USIP’s IT staff began taking steps to protect their data systems, according to three former employees. It offered last-minute cybersecurity training to staff in case members of the Trump administration tried to hack their way into USIP’s systems. Security staff ordered USIP employees to keep their offices locked and started requiring employees to use security badges to access any entrance way in the think tank’s building, according to a senior USIP employee.

Some employees also began downloading all their research, work contacts, and work emails.

On March 17, DOGE representatives forced their way into the locked USIP building using a physical key they had taken from a former USIP security contractor and with help from the D.C. police.

Working remotely that day, three USIP staffers told NPR they started to notice their Microsoft software services glitching — attempts, they said, of USIP’s cybersecurity defenses trying to stop DOGE from penetrating the think tank’s servers inside the USIP offices.

DOGE representatives convinced a former USIP IT employee to travel the day after from his base in the state of Georgia to USIP’s headquarters in Washington, according to court filings, in order to help DOGE bypass USIP’s cybersecurity controls and gain full control over their computer systems.

Shortly after, two employees said they received phishing emails about a nonexistent Microsoft Teams meeting sent from USIP accounts, including one from Ken Jackson, the Trump-appointed acting head of USIP and who was also tapped to briefly head USAID as it was being closed down. Someone then used the same employee’s email account to contact an overseas USIP employee.

USIP employes were working remotely when the final termination letters arrived Friday evening in their personal email inboxes and even by WhatsApp message, said two employees, because they have been unable to log into their work computers or email accounts since DOGE took over.

How far does the executive go?

At the heart of the USIP controversy is the question of whether the think tank falls under the purview of the executive branch. Earlier in March, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell said during a lawsuit hearing there was “confusion” over the think tank’s status.

USIP was founded in 1984 by an act of Congress, shortly after a nuclear standoff with the Soviet Union, in order to support scholarship and policy know-how aimed at peace-building. It regularly briefed decision-makers at the Pentagon and the executive branch on issues of foreign policy and national security.

Unlike other federal agencies the Trump administration has taken aim at in its federal cost-cutting campaign, USIP is a private nonprofit, and as such, its staffers were not federal employees.

It also has a nearly $80 million endowment, which includes its Washington office building, built using funds raised from private donors including Boeing, and thus not government-owned. The land the building sits on was authorized for USIP’s use by Congress. It is unclear what will happen to these assets if USIP is closed.

The president of the U.S. is allowed to appoint and remove USIP board members, but must do so with the consent of a majority of the board or with approval from multiple Senate subcommittees.

“This is part of a much larger and more profound issue about the unitary executive and when the executive wins an election, whether they can do whatever they want with any federal funds,” said a USIP employee.

Michele Kelemen contributed reporting.