US Government Faces Possible Reckoning Over Trump-Admin Plan for $500 Million DoJ Building

The State Department’s plan to use a recently acquired $500 million building as its new headquarters may be in conflict with a federal court order, according to former employees who claim the transfer is part of a larger effort by the Trump administration to establish a “Board of Peace” under the auspices of the US Institute of Peace. The DoJ seized the building from the US Institute of Peace, or USIP, after the agency’s director was fired in 2018 as part of a broader purge led by former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. As part of the agreement allowing for the sale, the court order stipulated that the building could only be used for officially sanctioned purposes. The Department of Justice has yet to respond to allegations that the Trump administration is flouting this condition in favor of its own interests.