For weeks, the U.S. African Development Foundation says in a new lawsuit, it’s managed to do one thing that many federal agencies have not: beat back DOGE and other members of the Trump administration’s wrecking crew.
It came to a head on Wednesday, when DOGE officials and a Trump appointee attempted to muscle their way in to the agency’s DC headquarters, according to a complaint filed by USADF’s president on Thursday in federal court in Washington. At one point, an appointee even threatened to sue a security guard blocking his way.
The 26-page complaint by USADF President Ward Brehm alleges that DOGE claimed that USAID appointee Pete Marocco had been named as acting chair of the USADF board of directors – a legally baseless claim. From there, the complaint alleges, Marocco and DOGE sought to muscle their way in to USADF in various ways so as to dismantle it.
[T}he story of USADF marks a rare example of a federal agency fighting back and, for now, holding DOGE off.
A DOGE employee named Chris Young told USADF leaders that two engineers –Ethan Shaotran and Nate Cavanaugh – would be detailed to “provide software expertise to modernize architecture, system design, and improve government efficiency,” the complaint says.
The next day, a DOGE attorney named Jake Altik appeared, the complaint alleges. Altik revealed what the complaint describes as DOGE’s true aim: to “dismantle” the agency by reducing it to its “minimum function.” That would mean firing everyone except its board and president while leaving one or two grants in place funded by private partnerships.
From there, USADF leadership started to fight back, the complaint says.
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