U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell declined to grant a temporary restraining order for five of the [ U.S. Institute of Peace]’s board members, who say they were unlawfully terminated via one-sentence emails, to return to their positions.
[...]
DOGE agents, Jacob Altik and Nate Cavanaugh, were joined by Trump’s new pick to lead the institute, Kenneth Jackson, but were denied access.
They returned Friday evening with two armed FBI agents and provided the agency’s lawyer George Foote with a resolution signed by three board members stating that George Moose had been removed from his position as president.
Courthouse News
Very Stalinesque.
Congress created the agency in 1984 via the U.S. Institute of Peace Act, signed into law by President Ronald Reagan, as an independent national institute to provide education, training and peace information services to help resolve conflicts around the globe.
The agency is led by a 15-member board, on which no more than eight members can be from the same party. Three of the members serve at the “pleasure of the President,” but the remaining 12 members cannot be removed without just cause and without a majority recommendation.
[...]
The proposed order would have barred agents for Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency organization from accessing the institute’s headquarters, which they first accomplished with assistance from FBI agents, Department of State security personnel and several Metropolitan Police officers.
Howell [...] was concerned that such an order would lead to a sort of armed standoff and instead ordered expedited briefing in the case to avoid such a messy intervention.
Trump's reign of fear affects all aspects of our lives.
“I am very offended by how DOGE has operated at the institute and treated American citizens trying to do a job that they were statutorily tasked to do at the institute,” Howell said. “But that concern about how this has gone down is not one that can sway me in my consideration of the factors for a [temporary restraining order], which is an emergency relief that is extraordinary.”
No comments:
Post a Comment