A federal judge delivered a major victory to the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) on Tuesday, dismissing a legal challenge to the agency’s authority to acquire government property without paying a premium.
The ruling capped a weeks-long standoff between DOGE and the U.S. Institute of Peace, with U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell siding with Elon Musk’s cost-cutting agency. The decision allows DOGE to take possession of the Institute’s headquarters at no cost. Auditors had attempted to access the building last month but were turned away at the entrance. Howell wrote that the Trump administration’s transfer of the IOP headquarters to the General Services Administration is “no longer merely ‘proposed’ but done,” thereby “rendering plaintiffs’ requested relief moot as to that property.”
Situated on Constitution Avenue just north of the Lincoln Memorial, the U.S. Institute of Peace’s massive headquarters covers more than 150,000 square feet and carries a real estate valuation of $500 million, according to court filings. The situation escalated last month after President Donald Trump removed all 10 of the Institute’s governing directors, leading to a dramatic confrontation in which employees and security personnel prevented DOGE staff from accessing the building.
DOGE staff returned one week later with their own key to the building, according to Wired. Nate Cavanaugh, an employee at DOGE, became the target of a lawsuit filed by former U.S. Institute of Peace staffers, who claim he lacked the authority to transfer ownership of the building to the General Services Administration without any cost to the federal government.
A letter from Cavanaugh to GSA acting administrator Stephen Ehikian contained in the court docket describes the property transfer as being “in the best interest of USIP, the federal government, and the United States.” He was supported by Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought, whose own letter in court filings approved the transfer, which “set the amount of reimbursement at no cost” for the facility.
“The transfer of the U.S. Institutes [sic] of Peace (USIP) headquarters facility … is a priority of the Trump-Vance administration,” wrote the GSA’s public buildings commissioner Michael Peters. “The transfer will enable GSA to fulfill other governmental space requirements at the USIP headquarters facility in a cost-effective manner. However, GSA has not had adequate time to budget for the cost of acquiring the USIP headquarters facility at fair market value, nor would such an acquisition be an immediate priority for GSA, given the limited resources available in the Federal Buildings Fund.”
A second challenge in dismantling the IOP is its $20 million endowment. Judge Howell stated in her ruling that she did not need to halt the transfer of funds to determine the headquarters’s relocation.
