Employees of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency entered the U.S. Institute of Peace on Monday despite protests from the nonprofit that it is not part of the executive branch and is instead an independent agency.

“DOGE has broken into our building," the organization's CEO, George Moose, said.

USIP employees called the Metropolitan Police Department and reported a break-in. Police cars were outside USIP headquarters in Northwest D.C. Monday evening.

The alleged intrusion came after the Trump administration fired most of the USIP board and sent its new leader into the Washington headquarters of the independent organization on Monday, in its latest effort targeting agencies tied to foreign assistance work.

The remaining three members of the group’s board — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Defense University President Peter Garvin — fired Moose on Friday, according to a document obtained by The Associated Press.

USIP is a congressionally funded independent nonprofit that works to advance U.S. values in conflict resolution, ending wars and promoting good governance.

It was not immediately clear what the DOGE staffers were doing or looking for in the nonprofit's building, which is across the street from the State Department in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood.

A sign was seen taped to the front door on Tuesday morning. It read, “Private property” and “no trespassing” in all caps, red letters.

Employees were told to work from home until further notice.

Dispute over who has authority over USIP

Moose said they have been in talks with D.C. police ever since President Donald Trump issued an executive order Feb. 19, stressing the headquarters is a private building with the same rights as any other private building owner.

“The employees of our building are not federal employees, executive branch employees,” Moose said. “They are employees of the institute. We have our own, separate board; we have our own bypass authority to go directly to Congress in order to get our money. Somehow, all of those arguments have not prevailed.”

The DOGE workers gained access to the building after several unsuccessful attempts Monday and after having been turned away on Friday, a senior U.S. Institute of Peace official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

Moose vowed legal action, saying that “what has happened here today is an illegal takeover by elements of the executive branch of a private nonprofit.”

He said the institute’s headquarters, located across the street from the State Department, is not a federal building. Speaking to reporters after leaving the building, Moose noted that “it was very clear that there was a desire on the part of the administration to dismantle a lot of what we call foreign assistance, and we are part of that family.”

While Moose said he believes the entry into headquarters is unlawful and inappropriate, he also feels it was inevitable.

Trump targeted the organization and a few others in a Feb. 19 executive order that aims to shrink the size of the federal government. The administration has since moved to fire and cancel programs at some of those organizations, following its dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development and slashing of other agencies, including the Education Department.

White House spokesperson Anna Kelly pointed to USIP’s “noncompliance” with Trump’s order.

After that, “11 board members were lawfully removed, and remaining board members appointed Kenneth Jackson acting president,” she said. “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.”

Jackson had been seen earlier Monday trying to get into the nonprofit’s building.

Late Monday evening, DOGE posted a statement on X saying, "Mr. Moose denied lawful access to Kenneth Jackson, the Acting USIP President (as approved by the USIP Board). @DCPoliceDept arrived onsite and escorted Mr. Jackson into the building. The only unlawful individual was Mr. Moose, who refused to comply, and even tried to fire USIP’s private security team when said security team went to give access to Mr. Jackson.”

DOGE has expressed interest in the organization for weeks but had been rebuffed by lawyers who argued that the institute’s status protected it from the kind of reorganization that is occurring in other federal agencies.

On Friday, DOGE members arrived with two FBI agents but left after the institute’s lawyer told them of USIP’s “private and independent status,” the organization said in a statement that day.

Chief of security Colin O’Brien said police on Monday helped DOGE members enter the building and that the private security team for the organization had its contract canceled.

The U.S. Institute of Peace says on its website that it's a nonpartisan, independent organization “dedicated to protecting U.S. interests by helping to prevent violent conflicts and broker peace deals abroad.”

The nonprofit says it was created by Congress in 1984 as an “independent nonprofit corporation,“ and it does not meet U.S. Code definitions of “government corporation,” “government-controlled corporation” or “independent establishment.”

Also named in Trump’s executive order were the U.S. African Development Foundation, a federal agency that invests in African small businesses; the Inter-American Foundation, a federal agency that invests in Latin America and the Caribbean; and the Presidio Trust, which oversees a national park site next to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

The African Development Foundation, which also unsuccessfully tried to keep DOGE staff from entering its offices in Washington, went to court, but a federal judge ruled last week that removing most grants and most staff would be legal. The president of the Inter-American

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