Let’s walk through this together, slowly, because if we don’t, we’re going to lose our minds.
There’s a place in Washington, D.C., just off Constitution Avenue, called the United States Institute of Peace. It’s not a metaphor, it’s not an ideal—it’s a literal building, federally funded, with the actual word “peace” in stone across the front.
For decades, it’s been the home of conflict mediators, war de-escalation experts, and career diplomats trying to prevent bloodshed around the world. These aren’t partisans. These aren’t political hacks. These are people who broker ceasefires in South Sudan. Who stop child soldiers from being conscripted in Myanmar. Who teach governments how not to collapse into genocide.
And now they are being investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Not for corruption. Not for fraud. Not because they sold secrets to a foreign government.
No—because when a federal agency led by Elon Musk—DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency—showed up unannounced, claimed the place for itself, and started forcing out the legally seated leadership, the staff resisted.
And for that—**for trying to protect a congressionally chartered institution from what they believed was an illegal takeover—**they are now under federal investigation.
That’s not a metaphor either. That’s actually happening.
The DOJ is reportedly investigating the Institute’s security personnel. FBI agents showed up at one man’s house—he was on medical leave—to ask why DOGE wasn’t allowed inside the building. Another staffer was told he’s personally under investigation for standing firm at the door. For trying to figure out who these people were and why they were trying to occupy the Institute without legal authority.
Let’s be really clear here: the Department of Justice, under this administration, is not investigating the people who barged into an independent federal institute and forcibly took over its operations.
They’re investigating the people who tried to stop it.
The people who were already there. The ones who believed in their mission. The ones who took an oath to uphold the law.
And in this brave new world, that apparently makes them the criminals.
It is impossible to overstate how upside-down this is. This isn’t a matter of interpretation or ideology—this is a mirror-universe level inversion of democratic norms.
Because what is the DOJ even doing here? Are they functioning as the legal enforcers of DOGE now? Is this the new model? Agency gets dissolved, another shows up with force, staff doesn’t immediately roll over, and now they get put under federal investigation?
If the Department of Justice is willing to investigate civil servants—peacebuilders—for simply refusing to open the door to a group that had no verifiable authority at the time…
What won’t they do?
What message does that send to every independent board, commission, or watchdog in Washington?
If this is allowed to stand—if this is what the DOJ is now for—then we are watching, in real time, the conversion of our justice system into an instrument of retaliation.
This isn’t about whether the Institute of Peace should exist or whether DOGE should absorb it. That’s a political question and should be debated in Congress. But this wasn’t a debate. This was an ambush. This was force. And now it’s punishment.
And if the DOJ doesn’t reverse course—if they don’t explain themselves fast—then what they are investigating isn’t crime.
It’s dissent.
And that’s not justice. That’s authoritarianism. Wrapped in a subpoena. Delivered by the men with guns.
