Washington, D.C., police were in an awkward position during this week’s standoff between the U.S. Institute of Peace and DOGE staffers, who sought access to the building to install a new president.
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Washington, D.C., police were in an awkward position during this week’s standoff between the U.S. Institute of Peace and staffers with the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s DOGE service. Those staffers took over the building to install a new president of the congressionally funded think tank. The police ultimately sided with DOGE. How did they arrive at that decision? NPR’s Meg Anderson has more.
MEG ANDERSON, BYLINE: George Moose was running the U.S. Institute of Peace, which helps prevent conflicts abroad, until Monday, when…
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GEORGE MOOSE: D.C. police showed up at my office and said, it’s time for you to go.
ANDERSON: That’s Moose talking to reporters on the steps of the Institute that day. Institute employees say they called the Metropolitan Police Department that afternoon. At 4 p.m., DOGE and Trump staffers were still trying to enter the building. According to an MPD statement, that’s when the acting U.S. attorney for D.C., Ed Martin, stepped in. He’s the District’s main prosecutor. He was appointed by the president and is widely regarded as a Trump loyalist. MPD says Martin directed them to a letter saying Moose had been replaced. With that letter in hand, the police asked Moose to leave. Vanessa Batters-Thompson, who runs the D.C. Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, says at that moment, officers were probably right.
VANESSA BATTERS-THOMPSON: Metropolitan police did what they were trained to do.
ANDERSON: Police often have to settle disputes in the moment, for instance in a fight between a landlord and a tenant. DOGE and the White House point to that letter as their justification, saying Moose acted unlawfully by refusing to comply.
BATTERS-THOMPSON: I think the genuine question here is whether the letter regarding the firing of George Moose was a legal, valid document.
ANDERSON: The Institute, for its part, has sued the Trump administration. It’s an independent nonprofit established by Congress, and it says 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. It also muddles the question of who police should answer to. That’s according to Rosa Brooks, a law professor at Georgetown University. She has also been an MPD reserve officer.
ROSA BROOKS: 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.
ANDERSON: Brooks says government standoffs like this put officers in a tough spot, especially in D.C., which is tied closely to the federal government.
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.
ANDERSON: She says that question is hovering over the heads of police officers in the District in a more vivid way than ever before.
On Wednesday, a judge denied a request 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 USIP is an independent agency or part of the executive branch. Nevertheless, the judge added that the involvement of law enforcement was, quote, “deeply troubling.”
NPR reached out to U.S. Attorney Martin and DOGE for this story. They did not respond to our request for an interview.
Meg Anderson, NPR News.
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