A federal district court judge has blocked President Donald Trump’s efforts to reform the U.S. Institute of Peace by firing personnel and changing the agency’s management.
In a ruling in a case brought by former Institute of Peace board members fired by the Trump administration, Beryl Howell, a senior judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, rejected the Trump administration’s authority over the agency.
The judge, appointed by President Barack Obama, wrote that the administration had ignored “the broader statutory goals set out for this organization [USIP] to fulfill,” and had “removed the Institute’s leadership, including plaintiff Board members and its president in contravention of statutory limitations.”
Early in his second administration, Trump had sought to reform the agency. That involved replacing the president of…
