Washington, D.C. – On April 10, 2025, ECBAWM and co-counsel Ali & Lockwood LLP filed a lawsuit on behalf of fired employees, contractors, and a donor to the U.S. Institute of Peace (“USIP”), an independent organization based in Washington, D.C. that exists to “promote international peace and the resolution of conflicts among the nations and peoples of the world without recourse to violence,” to prevent the U.S. DOGE Service and the other Trump Administration Defendants from shuttering it.

In March 2025, Defendants broke into USIP’s headquarters using agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Metropolitan Police Department, and a leftover skeleton key held by USIP’s former security contractor; fired USIP’s independent Board of Directors in violation of their statutory removal protections; usurped USIP’s Board; and arrested USIP’s functioning. Defendants transferred USIP’s privately-owned $500 million building to the federal government, drained its endowment, and began to fire its employees and contractors, including those working in active warzones abroad.

“The United States Government has led a hostile takeover of an independent non-profit organization created by Congress. This unprecedented government overreach is a threat to the fabric of our civil society,” said Dan Eisenberg, Of Counsel at Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP. “Our lawsuit lays a marker that this cannot stand. We must halt this destructive process and prevent further damage to this historic and critical institution, and the people it serves at home and abroad.”

“DOGE’s actions against USIP are not just unlawful—they are deeply harmful to global peace efforts,” said Rachael Wyant, Associate at Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP. “By unlawfully dismantling USIP, the Trump Administration is not only violating the law, but it is also undermining decades of work to resolve violent conflict and promote peace around the world. This lawsuit is about holding the government accountable and ensuring that the United States Institute of Peace can continue its critical mission without interference.”

“This is a case of egregious government overreach—armed agents forcing their way into an independent nonprofit’s privately-owned headquarters, seizing its assets, and destroying records—all in the name of so-called ‘efficiency.’ All Plaintiffs seek is to restore the ability of the United States Institute of Peace to carry out its mission—helping to prevent and resolve violent conflict and increase peacebuilding capacity around the world,” said Meghan Palmer, Associate at Ali & Lockwood LLP.

Read the complaint here