Former staffers for the U.S. Institute of Peace say Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency is misleading people about the work of the agency.
Mr. Musk and a group of DOGE staffers recently discussed on Fox News the cuts made by the department, including accusing USIP of wasting money by bankrolling a former Taliban member and chartering private jet flights for staff.
DOGE said back in March that USIP had spent $675,000 for “private aviation services” and sent $132,000 to Mohammad Qasem Halimi, an ex-Taliban member who was Afghanistan’s former chief of protocol.
USIP is battling the U.S. Department of Justice in court over the institute’s status as an independent agency. USIP sued in March to block DOGE’s efforts to dismantle the agency.
USIP outside counsel George Foote said DOGE’s claims are misleading. He confirmed that USIP did secure a private jet for staffers, but explained it was chartered to extract USIP staff from Afghanistan during the fall of Kabul in 2021.
USIP staff also admitted that the institute contracted with Mr. Halimi. However, they insisted Mr. Halimi had renounced the Taliban long before USIP contracted with him and that he had served as an important resource in the region.
“He’s spoken out frequently over a long time against the Taliban and their conservative interpretation of Islam and their human rights abuses and women’s rights abuses,” said former USIP employee Scott Worden. “He was teaching and training Afghan women’s rights advocates on Islamic principles and also doing research on how the Taliban’s treatment of women is a violation of international human rights and Islamic law.”
DOGE staffers moved into USIP’s Washington headquarters in mid-March, swiftly firing most of the institute’s staff and moving to transfer all its assets to the General Services Administration. USIP lawyers moved to block DOGE’s efforts through a temporary restraining order, but were denied in court.
The Justice Department and DOGE said they are carrying out President Trump’s order from February to dramatically shrink the federal bureaucracy.
USIP was created by an act of Congress in 1984 and is focused on fostering peacebuilding efforts internationally. Attorneys for USIP assert that the organization’s independent agency status means the president and DOGE lack the power to dissolve it.
D.C. District Judge Beryl Howell is expected to rule on the legality of DOGE’s takeover of USIP at a May 14 hearing.
