Former USIP attorney at DOGE: “Brass on an authoritarian fist”
George Foote still He has vivid memories of the day when operatives from Elon Musk’s so-called Ministry of Government Efficiency arrived at the headquarters of the United States Institute of Peace. USIP’s outside general counsel, he has been part of efforts to prevent the US government from taking control of the organization. When DOGE agents arrived at USIP’s offices in the spring, they went in like a “strike team,” Foote told the audience at WIRED’s big interview event in San Francisco on Thursday.
The DOGE team left behind a “half pound of weed” — probably, a fellow panelist noted, half an ounce — and ended up looking “no idea with this place,” Foote said. This, Foote said, was indicative of much of the DOGE’s work, “while the rice was brought into the tyrannical fist.” He added that he wasn’t sure what Musk wanted to do with DOGE, “but he took it to a destructive level.”
The Trump administration’s interest in the independent agency dates back to a Feb. 19 executive order that declared the agency “nonessential” and called for its elimination. In March, the administration fired 10 USIP voting board members who tried to enter headquarters but were turned away, according to court filings. In court documents, attorneys for the agency described a series of attempts by DOGE to break into the $500 million building before its agents finally succeeded. Ultimately, a judge ruled that DOGE and the US government did not have the right to control USIP and its headquarters.
However, this week Trump’s name was installed at the USIP headquarters before the signing of a peace agreement between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Foote, who is currently representing USIP executives in a lawsuit challenging Trump’s right to fire them, said the signing “was put in there because the president wants control of the building.”
Foote was one of several on a panel hosted by WIRED senior writer Vittoria Elliott on the implications of DOGE’s behavior—breaking things fast. Foote was joined by former Social Security Administration Commissioner Leland Dudek and former DOGE engineer Sahil Lavingia, who announced during the panel that he had returned to government at the Internal Revenue Service.
As WIRED reported on Tuesday, many of DOGE’s young technologists who were sent to various US agencies are still working with federal government entities. Edward “Big Ball” Coristin, Akash Baba, Ethan Shaotran, Marco Ells and Gavin Kliger are all still affiliated with DOGE or the US government. DOGE has just evolved, an IRS employee told WIRED.
Foote noted that as the effects of DOGE wear off, it’s important for people to be aware of what’s going on. He is confident that the USIP executives will win in court, even if it is a long process. “The rule of law doesn’t matter if people don’t rise up to defend it,” he said.
