Appeals court puts peace institute back in Trump administration hands with stay of lower court

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court panel on Friday stayed a lower court ruling that blocked the Trump administration from moving forward with dismantling the U.S. Institute of Peace, an organization taken over in March by the Department of Government Efficiency, then led by Elon Musk.

The three-judge panel with the U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia Circuit issued the stay, saying the Trump administration’s appeal of U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell’s opinion would likely succeed on the merits. The stay added that the president would face “irreparable harm from not being able to fully exercise his executive powers.”

The judges said in their decision that the nonprofit think tank that focuses on peace initiatives engaged in activities that fall under the purview of the executive branch.

The appeal’s court action is the latest turn in the government’s shutdown of the USIP, which had been turned back over to the organization’s board and acting president following Howell’s May 19 ruling. It also places the staff’s attempt at restarting its operations in limbo.

President Donald Trump issued the executive order in February that targeted the institute and three other agencies for closure in an effort to deliver on campaign promises to shrink the size of the federal government. The first attempt by DOGE to take over the headquarters led to a standoff. Members of Musk’s DOGE group returned days later with the FBI and Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police to help them gain entry.

The institute and many of its board members sued the Trump administration March 18, seeking to prevent their removal and to prevent DOGE from taking over its operations. The firing of the board was followed by a Friday night mass firing by email on March 28, which threw the workforce into turmoil. DOGE transferred the administrative oversight of the organization’s headquarters and assets to the General Services Administration that weekend.

Howell, in a lengthy opinion in May, reversed the action when she determined the organization was not part of the executive branch and therefore Trump did not have authority to fire its board and acting president. She ruled that all subsequent actions, including the firing of most of the staff, the cessation of operations and the takeover of its headquarters and assets, were illegal as well.

Howell denied a government request for a stay of her opinion while the government appeals, a move that led acting president George Moose and others to reclaim the headquarters and begin trying to ramp USIP’s operations back up. Those efforts have been slow going, with much of the staff still furloughed and operations in parts of the world shut down.

It was unclear Friday if there would be another change of hands of the headquarters.

The White House was not immediately available for comment.

A press statement from the organization said “we will continue to fight for USIP’s right to fulfill its commitment to our congressional mandate and to control USIP’s headquarters, funds, and operations to the fullest extent of the law. We remain confident we will prevail in this case and we look forward to continuing our critical work both at our headquarters in Washington, DC and in conflict zones around the world.”