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446982 |
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Date: March 19, 2025 at 16:36:53
From: The Hierophant, [DNS_Address]
Subject: DOGE appears to be on the verge of Kristallnacht methods |
URL: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/judge-rails-against-doge-for-terrorizing-u-s-institute-of-peace-after-using-guns-and-threats-to-shut-it-down/ar-AA1BgBg1?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=6a36eda49e9f4370d2c22fbf5479a5ef&ei=13#comments |
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It is escalating rapidly...
"Judge rails against DOGE for ‘terrorizing’ U.S.
Institute of Peace after using ‘guns and threats’ to
shut it down
A federal judge was alarmed by allegations that the so-
called Department of Government Efficiency provoked a
dramatic standoff this week with the U.S. Institute of
Peace, culminating in what attorneys for the agency
called a hostile “takeover” fueled by threats and
harassment.
Federal prosecutors have threatened institute officials
with criminal prosecution, DOGE members warned that a
private security contractor would lose government
contracts, and the institute’s president was forcibly
removed by several law enforcement agencies – events
that attorneys with the Department of Justice have not
disputed.
In a hearing in Washington, D.C., Wednesday, District
Judge Beryl Howell asked Justice Department attorneys
whether Donald Trump’s administration could enforce his
executive order seeking to shutter the agency “without
using the force of guns and threats by DOGE against
American citizens.”
“I mean, this conduct of using law enforcement,
threatening criminal investigations, using arms of law
enforcement … probably terrorizing employees and staff
at the institute, when there are so many other lawful
ways to accomplish the goals … why?” she said. “Just
because DOGE is in a rush?”
The institute is not a federal agency but an
independent nonprofit established by Congress under
President Ronald Reagan. Its headquarters in
Washington, D.C., is not government property, and its
personnel are not federal employees. The institute
employs roughly 600 people in the United States and
overseas with a congressional mandate to help resolve
international conflicts.
On Monday, DOGE agents emptied the building and
installed DOGE agent Kenneth Jackson as acting
president. Jackson has been tapped to join the boards
of several agencies gutted by DOGE, and he was recently
nominated by Trump as a senior official at the U.S.
Agency for International Development, which DOGE chief
Elon Musk has threatened to throw “into the wood
chipper.”
A lawsuit seeking to block the Trump administration
from shutting down the agency describes a “takeover by
force” that followed a dramatic series of events
following the president’s executive order signaling the
institute’s “expected termination.”
The lawsuit — brought by the institute and members of
its board against Trump, DOGE and administration
officials — argues that the Trump administration
unlawfully fired the institute’s president George Moose
after forcing out board members and replacing them with
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary
Pete Hegseth, among others.
Howell, however, denied a request for a temporary
restraining order that would block DOGE from taking
over the institute while a legal challenge plays out,
noting that it’s a “complicated entity” with an unusual
structure. But she said she is “offended” by DOGE’s
conduct.
On Sunday, institute board members agreed to lock the
office and suspend the building’s private security
contract with Inter-Con after DOGE agents showed up
last week. FBI agent Doug Silk then told the
institute’s security chief Colin O’Brien that he was
the subject of a Justice Department investigation,
according to O’Brien’s sworn statement in court
documents.
O’Brien said he told his wife to lock the doors of
their home, fearing FBI agents would show up to
question him.
On Monday, Washington, D.C.’s Metropolitan Police
Department said they were contacted by the U.S.
Attorney's Office — now under the direction of longtime
Trump ally Ed Martin — and sided with Jackson, who is
described in a police statement as the institute’s
president, not Moose.
DOGE agents then allegedly pressured Inter-Con vice
president Derrick Hanna to hand over his spare keys to
get into the building by threatening to revoke the
company’s government contracts.
O'Brien said that when police arrived at the building
around 5:30 p.m. Monday, officers were joined by
Jackson and DOGE agents.
“I was told by D.C. police officers to stay put and not
move. I was physically blocked by a D.C. police officer
from moving about the building,” O’Brien wrote in his
statement. “I asked if I could retrieve my car keys and
my car, and they said no.”
He said police then witnessed D.C. police “retrieve
lock picking equipment” from a car.
During Wednesday’s hearing, a deflated Judge Howell
said she was “offended on behalf of American citizens”
that the institute’s staff could be “treated so
abominably.”
“And to strong-arm a private contractor? To threaten …
people with criminal investigations?” she asked Brian
Hudak, chief of the civil division of the U.S.
Attorney's Office in Washington. “That doesn’t strike
you as a little offensive?”
The White House has defended DOGE’s actions and the
removal of the institute’s president and board.
“President Trump signed an executive order to reduce
[the institute] to its statutory minimum,” deputy press
secretary Anna Kelly said in a statement. “Rogue
bureaucrats will not be allowed to hold agencies
hostage. The Trump administration will enforce the
President’s executive authority and ensure his agencies
remain accountable to the American people.”
DOGE — under the U.S. DOGE Service — has led a crusade
across the federal government to fire tens of thousands
of workers and slash billions of dollars in spending,
which faces an avalanche of lawsuits questioning Musk’s
authority and the president’s alleged constitutional
abuses.
On Tuesday, in a court ruling that appears to be the
first to restrain Musk himself for his actions in the
Trump administration, a federal judge ordered the
billionaire and DOGE to reinstate access to email and
payment systems for all USAID employees and
contractors.
That order also blocks the administration from taking
any other actions to try to shutter the agency,
including firing workers or placing them on leave,
deleting websites, shutting bureaus and closing
buildings."
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Responses:
[446986] [446990] |
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446986 |
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Date: March 19, 2025 at 23:36:44
From: ryan, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: DOGE appears to be on the verge of Kristallnacht methods |
URL: https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/5204061-federal-judge-blocks-usip-takeover/ |
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they won that one...
Judge declines to temporarily block DOGE takeover of US Institute of Peace
by Ella Lee and Rebecca Beitsch - 03/19/25 4:40 PM ET
A federal judge on Wednesday declined to temporarily block the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) takeover of the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP), after the organization said its power was seized without lawful authority.
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell expressed alarm about the manner in which DOGE accessed the building but said the now-fired board members likely don’t have authority to sue in their official capacity, calling some aspects of the lawsuit “a stretch.”
Howell declined to bar DOGE from accessing USIP’s facilities and systems, acting in USIP’s name or declare void the apparent removal of its board.
She also declined to forbid further trespass against the independent institute, after it said in court filings DOGE conducted a “literal trespass and takeover by force.”
“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.”
USIP stressed its status differs from other agencies infiltrated by DOGE, as it is an independent nonprofit corporation. The institute was established to help resolve and prevent violent conflicts.
It sued DOGE and other Trump administration officials Wednesday morning, claiming they sought to unlawfully dismantle the institute and block it from completing the peace promotion work tasked to it by Congress.
Institute lawyer Andrew Goldfarb and five board members who say they were unlawfully removed said DOGE moved at “lightning speed” and sought to reduce the organization “essentially to rubble.”
DOGE first showed up at USIP’s Washington headquarters on Friday with two FBI agents, Goldfarb said. When they failed to gain access, FBI agents appeared at the private residence of the institute’s chief of security on Sunday to attempt to get into the building.
That same day, the institute’s outside counsel was threatened with criminal investigation — before later being told he was the subject of federal investigation as to why the institute refused to let FBI agents enter the building.
On Monday, three sets of law enforcement — D.C. Metropolitan Police, Department of State police and the FBI — showed up to help DOGE get into the building.
“That’s a lot of law enforcement at a charitable corporation building to enforce an executive order, wouldn’t you say?” Howell asked.
Howell also expressed dismay that the private security firm contracted by USIP aligned itself with DOGE under the apparent threat of losing its other government security contracts. An official from the company, Inter-Con, showed up alongside DOGE officials Monday, using their key to access the building despite the revoked contract.
“DOGE went to this terminated private security contractor and said, ‘Even though we don’t have a contract with you … let us in or we’re going to cancel all your other government business,’” the judge said.
Goldfarb described the private firm as having “essentially turned on USIP.”
“Are you the least bit offended with how this was executed, Mr. Hudak?” Howell asked Justice Department lawyer Brian Hudak.
She also questioned the nature of DOGE’s entrance and other lawful ways the president’s order could have been better executed “without using the force of guns and threats against American citizens and those who served our country for years.”
Hudak implored the judge to view the matter as “two sides of the same coin.”
He said that Trump, using his executive power, had already removed USIP’s leadership and installed his own. The board’s president, then, had essentially barricaded himself in at USIP’s headquarters and refused to comply with his firing, he suggested.
“It really comes down to how you view that,” Hudak said.
In court filings, lawyers for USIP said the office was “plundered” by DOGE. They attached a photo showing the institute’s financial documents in a bin labeled “shred,” and a declaration from the group’s chief security officer indicated that DOGE employees were accompanied by FBI agents.
Hudak defended the placement of some financial records in the shred bin,
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Responses:
[446990] |
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446990 |
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Date: March 20, 2025 at 08:08:51
From: Redhart, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: DOGE appears to be on the verge of Kristallnacht methods |
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Well, they feel they can do this to any private entity
now..private charity, maybe your business.
They can grab you off the street if they don't like your
tatoo...send you to prison camps without even proving
you're not a citizen or anything else. No due process,
no hearing and Judges be damned.
Who needs a constitution? Not Elon and Trump apparently.
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