Inter-American Foundation sues to block takeover as DOJ says Trump can appoint new leaders
The Justice Department (DOJ) on Tuesday defended the right of President Trump to dismantle two development organizations in the face of a lawsuit from the Inter-American Foundation (IAF).
Through its Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), the DOJ said Trump was entitled to remove board members and appoint new ones without the advice and consent of the Senate.
“When no statute says otherwise, a President’s responsibility to ‘take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed,’ grants him the concomitant authority to designate acting officers through whom he can temporarily maintain the constitutional chain of supervision over an organization created by Congress to perform executive functions,” the OLC wrote in its memo.
“The President needs time to appoint new Board members through the advice and consent process—particularly in the season of a presidential transition. He need not leave the foundations leaderless in the meantime.”
Sara Aviel, the IAF's ousted head, said she was wrongfully removed as president of the foundation. The IAF's lawsuit said a newly appointed board member had proclaimed himself president and “terminated the IAF’s staff, cut off its grants, and even ordered the return of already-disbursed and obligated funds from grantees.”
The lawsuit said the actions could represent the end of an organization responsible for funding efforts to combat poverty, migration and instability in Latin America and the Caribbean.
“If this Court does not take action, what remains of the IAF— created by an Act of Congress and sustained for the past fifty-six years—will soon be destroyed. This wholesale gutting of the IAF by the Government flies in the face of the law,” the suit states.
The suit says Peter Marocco, an acting official at the U.S. Agency for International Development, appointed himself in charge, contravening requirements the IAF’s leader be Senate-confirmed.
“Peter Marocco visited the IAF office with the intent to call an “emergency meeting,” the suit said.
"When he and Department of Government Efficiency (“DOGE”) staff found no one there, Marocco purported to hold a closed-door meeting of the Board—consisting of just himself, DOGE representatives, and the empty IAF lobby—where he immediately installed himself as Chair of the Board of the IAF and acting President and CEO,” the suit states.
Trump targeted the IAF and similar agencies – including the U.S. African Development Foundation and the United States Institute of Peace – in a Feb. 25 executive order, directing that they “reduce the performance of their statutory functions and associated personnel to the minimum presence and function required by law.”
The U.S. African Development Foundation has also sued to block DOGE from accessing its building, likewise asserting Marocco improperly tried to appoint himself as head of the organization.