The mysterious conflict broke out between the Ministry of Governmental efficiency and an independent agency dedicated to promoting peace to an open -minded confrontation on the police on Monday, as the government sectors of Elon Musk walked at the agency’s headquarters and expelled its officials.
He played the dramatic scene in Washington on Monday afternoon, when Mr. Musk team was rejected from the American Peace Institute, an agency launched by President Trump to dismantle it, then entered it with law enforcement officers. Agency officials say that since the non -profit institute in Congress and not part of the executive branch, Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk do not have the authority of its operations.
“Dogs just came to the building – they are inside the building – bringing the FBI and brought a group of the capital police,” said Sofia Lin, a lawyer for the institute, by phone while observing.
He told reporters that George Mousse, who was expelled as head of the institute’s representation last week, was challenging his dismissal, on charges of Mr. Musk, to storm. “Our law is very clear regarding the status of this building and this institute.” “So what happened here today is an illegal acquisition by the elements of the executive branch of a private non -profit company.”
The confrontation soon became one of the most prominent resistance points for Mr. Musk’s efforts to launch federal workers and dismantle the entire agencies. He emphasized Mr. Trump’s readiness to push the legal limits of his authority to lead to reshape the federal government and put even entities that were traditionally independent under his thumb.
A spokesman for the Mr. Musk team brought an investigation to the White House. The administration official blamed the institute of non -compliance with Executive order Mr. Trump signed it in February, who included the institute as one of the four government entities “to be eliminated to the maximum extent compatible with the applicable law” and commanded them “to reduce performance” to the minimum required under the law within 14 days.
The institute was created by Congress in 1984 and works to prevent and end the conflict, and to publish specialists in working with American allies, and to train peace negotiators, diplomats and Congress with a briefing. Since the executive order for the month of February, its website has been updated with additional signals to the “cost -effective” nature of its work, an attempt that is likely to win for the Mr. Musk team.
It did not succeed. The leaders of the institute and the Ministry of Government’s efficiency were raising presidents since at least Friday afternoon, when the White House sent all members of the institute’s board of directors except for three members of the institute, he told them that they had been terminated.
The remaining members of the Board of Directors – Foreign Minister Marco Rubio, Defense Minister Beit Higseth and Peter A. Jarfin, President of the National Defense University – Moss’s place later as a proxy president with Kenneth Jackson, an official at the Foreign Ministry who participated in the dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development.
Mrs. Lynn said that the institute is preparing to prosecute the administration due to the removal of the council. Institute officials refused to recognize this termination.
Governmental Ministry of efficiency officials first tried to reach the agency’s headquarters, off the National Commercial Center, on Friday afternoon, but the institute representatives removed them.
The MUSK team appeared again at 7 pm on Friday, accompanied by two FBI agents, and showed the institute a signed document by the remaining board members who removed the president on the institute. In the institute, the institute’s spokesman Galligos said in a statement on Saturday, after they left after the institute’s lawyer told them that it was an independent agency outside the executive branch.
Ms. Lynn said that during the weekend, the FBI threatened the institute’s employees for not reaching the building.
She also said that Jonathan Hornuk, the new head of the Criminal Department of the Prosecutor’s Office in the United States in the province of Colombia, is called George Foot, another institute’s lawyer, on Sunday night, submitted requests on behalf of Mr. Rubio and Mr. Higseth to reach “books and records of the institute.” When he resisted the institute, he threatened to conduct a criminal investigation. A spokeswoman for the US Prosecutor’s Office for Comment Applications did not respond.
By noon on Monday, the newly published signs on the doors of the building warned against infringing on the property of others and it seems that they were created in a hurry. One of the readers was that the building was “closed until the Fores notice.”
MUSK representatives arrived on Monday afternoon in the black SUV with government plates and accompanied what appeared to be special security that reached separate cars and they were wearing street clothes.
They have tried one entrance, but they could not find a way inside and instead to write down the building before returning to the SUV.
After a few minutes, lawyers of the institute left the building and approached the car. What followed is Windowside’s negotiations: It seems that Mr. Musk representatives in the car, including the man who knew himself as Mr. Jackson, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and newly proven head of the agency, ask the lawyers to enter.
“I mean, I don’t know where you will take us,” said Ms. Lynn.
“We do not want to sit here,” added Mr. Foot, the second lawyer of the institute, with a molding voice, persuading. “We can walk. We’ll walk, come. It’s a beautiful day.”
Behind the colored windows of the car, it appears that this has been rejected, and negotiations continued with the support of traffic in the peak hour behind the parked car and the drivers were placed on their horns. The parties seem to agree to hold a video call.
Mrs. Lynn said that Mr. Musk team did not enter the building until officers from the Capital Police Department appeared in Washington. She said that the institute officials had contacted the police to report that the members of the government’s Ministry of competence were beyond, but the police instead cleared the institute leaders of the building.
A police spokesman, Tom Lynch, said that the officers were called to the scene based on a report on an illegal entry and said that the police left after he left the people who were seeking illegal entry. He did not say who are these people or provided more information about what happened at the scene of the accident, regardless of the fact that no arrests were made.
Two men, Nate Kavano and Justin Imonte, the lawyer, were the same as musk officials who forced this month to enter the African Development Foundation, one of the government entities mentioned in the February Executive Order. They did not answer the loud questions.
Late Monday night, the members of the Musk team, who are said to be working around the clock, were still at the institute. Mr. Jackson can be seen working in the president’s office. Dinner was delivered: SweetGREEN and six pizza.
Erik Lee and Kent Nishimura The reports contributed.
