Elon Musk is accusing officials at the U.S. Institute of Peace of deleting financial records to cover up criminal activity.
“They deleted a terabyte of financial data to cover their crimes, but they don’t understand technology, so we recovered it,” Mr. Musk posted Tuesday on X, referring to his Department of Government Efficiency.
He was responding to a post from the X account @amuse, which displayed a canceled USIP contract that allegedly went to the “Taliban and Iraqi leaders” and said the agency had provided $1.3 million to the Iraqi League for Youth.
Neither Mr. Musk or @amuse provided any evidence that the USIP contracts existed, that USIP employees tried to scrub them from the record or that having any such contracts would be considered criminal.
George Foote, longtime outside counsel for the USIP, called Mr. Musk’s accusations “irresponsible, reckless and wrong.”
According to @amuse’s post, the money set aside for the Taliban went to Mohammed Qasem Halimi, Afghanistan’s former chief of protocol. The contract’s purpose has not been clarified by USIP, which has been effectively dismantled by DOGE.
Additionally, the Iraqi League for Youth is a human rights organization that works to champion women’s rights in Iraq.
Mr. Musk’s accusations come after his DOGE workers took over USIP’s office last month. Following an executive order from President Trump to crack down on independent organizations, DOGE entered USIP’s offices, evicted staff and installed a new president.
The takeover has sparked an intense legal battle, with former USIP leaders asserting that DOGE’s actions are unlawful. USIP’s lawyers say the institute is an independent organization set up by Congress, meaning the president has no authority to fire its board members and staff.
This week, newly appointed acting USIP President Nate Cavanaugh fired nearly all of USIP staff and began a transfer of all of the institute’s assets to the General Services Administration, an arm of the executive branch.
