The U.S. African Development Foundation, one of the smallest agencies in the federal government, has become a major battlefield in the guerrilla warfare between the Trump administration and resisters deep inside the bureaucracy.
The case has all the intrigue of a legal thriller novel. President Trump sends his Department of Government Efficiency team to the foundation’s headquarters, just north of the White House, only to find employees blocking them at the door.
Mr. Trump’s team then threatened to bring in the U.S. Marshals.
With elements reminiscent of medieval Catholic Church intrigue, two men claim power at the agency.
For now, the president’s team has come out on top, with U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon refusing to order the president to recognize Ward Brehm, the man picked by the Trump opponents to be president of the USADF. He said Mr. Brehm hadn’t met the burden of winning a temporary restraining order.
“Unfortunately, for Brehm, based on the record before me, I cannot find that he satisfies the ‘high standard for irreparable injury,’” Judge Leon wrote.
Still, Mr. Brehm told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune he believes he remains in charge anyway.
The case is part of a vast legal battle over Mr. Trump’s aggressive takeover of the federal bureaucracy.
Foreign aid programs have been a particular target for Mr. Trump, who, in a Feb. 19 executive order, called for the wind-down, as much as legally possible, of the U.S. Institute of Peace, the Inter-American Foundation and USADF.
It was an obvious target for Mr. Trump and his budget-cutting DOGE because of its nexus to foreign aid programs, which Mr. Trump is skeptical of, and because an inspector general slammed it last year for taking a relaxed approach to fraud with taxpayer money.
With a budget of $45 million, the agency said it doled out $16.6 million in agriculture grants, $7.4 million in energy grants and $4.2 million in youth and women entrepreneurship grants last year.
The two sides tell different stories in their court documents, but piecing it all together, it appears that soon after Mr. Trump’s executive order, a DOGE staffer contacted the foundation and asked for access to its computers to do some systems checks.
The next day, a DOGE team showed up and said it was there to slim down the agency by ousting most personnel and cutting the work down to one or two grants. Foundation staffers refused, saying the systems were private. Mr. Trump’s DOGE team threatened to have the foundation’s board fired.
On Feb. 24, short emails from the White House Office of Presidential Personnel fired four board members, including Mr. Brehm and former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, the foundation chair. On Feb. 26, one last remaining board member was fired.
Two days later, Mr. Trump appointed Pete Marocco, the State Department official now in charge of foreign aid programs, as the sole board member and acting chairman.
The problem, according to the original board, is that they never got the emails firing them. They said the White House seemed to guess at the correct addresses and got them wrong. They held a meeting on March 3, without Mr. Marocco, where they deemed Mr. Marocco’s appointment illegal and designated Mr. Brehm as the foundation’s president.
They then held their regular meeting on March 4, again without Mr. Marocco, who said he would take control the following day.
When he did show up on March 5, the foundation staff blocked his access, and he reportedly said he would call the U.S. Marshals or Secret Service to force entry.
The matter then hit the courts. In a lawsuit filled with charges of “bullying” and “strong-arm” tactics, Mr. Brehm, a George W. Bush appointee who had been on the board since 2008, demanded to be recognized as the rightful head.
He said if Mr. Trump’s team is allowed to take control, even briefly, it would ruin the agency beyond repair.
Mr. Trump’s attorneys said the president has clear firing powers and the law does not require him to give a reason.
In his brief ruling this week, Judge Leon cast doubt on all sides.
He expressed skepticism that Mr. Trump has followed the Constitution in installing his pick to the board. He said federal law doesn’t appear to allow temporary appointments such as Mr. Marocco’s.
If he eventually decides that way, Judge Leon said the remedy will be reinstating Mr. Brehm with back pay. It doesn’t rise to the level of deserving a restraining order immediately putting him back on the job.
The judge said what Mr. Brehm is doing is complaining that Mr. Trump is tilting the agency away from how Mr. Brehm and the other old board members wanted to run things.
“Congress has defined the agency’s minimum level of functioning already, yet Brehm is asking the court to define what it means for the agency to be fulfilling its mission,” Judge Leon wrote. “The court would be guessing here and would be substituting Brehm’s judgment for that of Congress. This I will not do,” he said.
In a statement, Mr. Brehm said he was “disappointed” with the ruling but “encouraged by the remaining options presented to us.”
“USADF continues to comply with its statutory obligations, and we are determined to do everything we can to ensure the long-term viability of this wonderful agency and its incredible staff that has effectively and faithfully served those among the poor in Africa on behalf of the people of America,” he said.
The Washington Times reached out to Ms. Moseley Braun for this report.
