Federal marshals on Thursday escorted officials from the Department of Government Efficiency into the U.S. African Development Foundation, a day after its employees refused entry to the Trump administration’s budget-slashing unit and Pete Marocco, the State Department official in charge of foreign aid.
Once inside, security officials were directed to change the federal agency’s locks, according to a security official at the scene. Mr. Marocco was seen entering the building separately from DOGE officials, according to video posted online, and the security official said he was briefly in the building.
Thursday’s takeover of the small foundation, which has about 55 employees and an annual budget of about $45 million, came after a weekslong standoff between administration officials and the foundation’s leaders. The leaders refused to succumb to the efforts of Mr. Marocco and the Department of Government of Efficiency team, overseen by Elon Musk, to assume control of their functions, dismiss staff members and install Mr. Marocco as the acting leader.
Barely an hour after the officials arrived on Thursday with federal marshals, the foundation’s president, Ward Brehm, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia seeking to prevent Mr. Marocco from ousting him and usurping control.
“Without this court’s immediate intervention, defendants will continue their tactics and strong-arm their way into” the foundation, Mr. Brehm’s complaint said, predicting that “within days, the damage that they do will be irreparable.”
He asked the judge to issue injunctions preventing the Trump administration from removing him from his post and from installing Mr. Marocco or any other person in his place, and a court order stating that Mr. Brehm is the rightful president of the foundation.
The White House disputed the accusation that it had done anything unlawful, insisting that President Trump had ordered the staff to be reduced to a statutory minimum and appointed Mr. Marocco to be the acting chairman of the board.
“Entitled, rogue bureaucrats have no authority to defy executive orders by the president of the United States or physically bar his representatives from entering the agencies they run,” said Anna Kelly, a White House spokeswoman.
Representatives for Mr. Musk’s team and the State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Before it became a target of the Trump administration, the U.S. African Development Foundation distributed federal grants of up to $250,000 directly to grass-roots enterprises and social entrepreneurs in Africa. But on Feb. 19, President Trump issued an executive order specifically naming the foundation as one of a handful of entities he had decided were “unnecessary” — prompting Mr. Musk’s team to begin trying to cull the bulk of its programs, over the objections of the staff and the board.
Mr. Brehm’s suit accuses officials working with Mr. Musk of initially trying to enter the foundation under false pretenses and flout statutory requirements preventing them from liquidating the board and slashing the foundation’s funding. Mr. Brehm and other members of the board refused to defer to their authority, according to the complaint, even reinstalling Mr. Brehm as the foundation’s president after Mr. Marocco appointed himself to the role in an acting capacity.
On Wednesday, the test of wills came to a head when Mr. Marocco and at least two of Mr. Musk’s deputies — Jacob Altik, a lawyer, and Ethan Shaotran, a software engineer — were denied entry to the offices, according to Mr. Brehm and video captured at the foundation. Mr. Marocco threatened to return with U.S. Marshals and the Secret Service if they were not allowed access.
Mr. Altik and Mr. Shaotran did not respond to requests for comment. But both were seen entering the building that houses the foundation on Thursday, alongside other members of Mr. Musk’s team, including Nate Cavanaugh. Mr. Brehm’s lawsuit said Mr. Cavanaugh was another engineer who had been closely involved in the effort to assume control of the foundation in the weeks since Mr. Trump issued his executive order. Mr. Cavanaugh did not respond to a request for comment.
The standoff on Wednesday lasted about an hour, according to media reports. On Thursday, it appeared that DOGE representatives were still in the foundation’s offices several hours after they arrived.
Eric Lee, Nicholas Nehamas and Aishvarya Kavi contributed reporting.
