several board members including the CEO of the United States Institute of Peace were escorted from the organization's DC headquarters Monday after being fired last week as part of cuts from the Department of government efficiency or Doge Representatives with Elon musk's team had been trying to enter the building since Friday despite protests from The Institute Police were eventually called to get involved the Trump Administration claims The Institute did not comply with a February executive order that directed it and other organizations to reduce its Workforce operation Congress created the US Institute of Peace in 1984 with the
support of then President Ronald Reagan the nonpartisan independent organization Works to prevent and end Global conflicts The Institute says despite its Federal Charter it's not technically classified as a government corporation or government controlled Corporation for more let's bring in asharia kavy she's a reporter for the New York Times thank you for being here can you tell us more about what the Institute does and where they get their funding from yeah thank you for having me so the Institute is funded by Congress but they operate independently they operate like any other nonprofit organization uh in the
city of Washington DC and they say that their employees are not federal employees so um they certainly have a lot of ties to the Executive Branch the President appoints members of the board and he can remove them through a process that is outlined under law it's not quite a process that the Trump Administration followed on Friday when it took those actions but um as you said this uh this institute Works globally to help prevent and end conflict it trains peace negotiators it trains diplomats and it briefs Congress on uh on these issues as well I
want to play a clip of what the institute's now former president and CEO George moose who was fired Monday said as he left the building this is not a government building this building is a private building owned by the US Institute peace the US piece is not an executive branch agency department or entity we have our own separate board we have our own bypass authority to go directly to Congress in order to get our money did somehow all of those arguments uh have not prevailed so who has authority over the US Institute of Peace and
how does it differ from other organizations like USA well who the question of who has Authority is something that the courts are ultimately going to have to decide so um Mr moose and some former staffers are um the lawyers for the former staffers for The Institute have said yesterday that they're going to be filing a law suit they're not uh accepting the Trump administration's removal of their board and removal of the president um but as to who has Authority um the courts will have to decide and moose says that he doesn't understand why the organization
was targeted because its work aligns quote perfectly with the goals that President Trump has outlined how so yeah well uh the the organization focuses on diplomacy you know it wants to prevent conflict and and president Trump has has um you know said that he wants to uh get America out of Wars abroad and and he certainly took those steps uh in his first term and um the the Institute has um presumably tried to convince Doge that uh its Mission aligns with Mr Trump's um goals for his administration um actually their website was updated after the
February executive order from the administration to highlight some of the uh ways that their work Cuts costs for the government by by preventing conflict and preventing the US from having to uh intervene in conflicts abroad asharia kav thank you for your time thank you
