State Dept. staff—including Noem—will move into Institute of Peace building despite ongoing legal dispute

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The State Department will begin moving some of its offices into the United States Institute of Peace building as early as next week, despite the fact that the building’s ownership remains under pending litigation. Staff in those offices have been told verbally and in writing to pack up their belongings in preparation for the move, which The Handbasket is first to report based on conversations with two employees whose identities are being kept anonymous to protect their jobs, and review of internal communications about the move. Adding insult to injury, the office supporting Kristi Noem’s new gig has been confirmed to be part of those making the move.

The fight over the USIP building has been a major focus of my reporting for the past year, most recently in light of the lawsuit I won against the DC Metropolitan Police Department, compelling them to release all body camera footage from their response to last year’s raid. While the former staffers continue to wait on a decision from the DC Circuit Court of Appeals in United States Institute of Peace vs. Jackson to determine who will ultimately retain control of the building, the Trump administration has kept the keys since a June 2025 stay. And now the State Department plans to take up residence in the disputed property.

This past December, the State Department announced that the building at 2301 Constitution Ave. NW in Washington, DC—which the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) seized in a March 2025 raid—had been renamed the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace. They slapped his name in large metal letters above the USIP sign on the exterior of the building, claiming the new name was meant “to reflect the greatest dealmaker in our nation's history.” A day later, Trump used the building to hold a peace deal signing between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. It remains unclear what, if any, impact the deal had on peace in the region.  

"A federal judge has already ruled that the government's armed takeover was illegal,” George Foote, counsel for former USIP leadership and staff, told NPR in December after the renaming. “That judgment is stayed while the government appeals, which is the only reason the government continues to control the building.” 

As Wired reported in January, a letter was sent to the Justice Department by representatives on behalf of the USIP’s fired board and president which references a 10-year memorandum of understanding (MOU) “under which hundreds of State Department employees will move into USIP’s building.”

Per Wired: 

The Handbasket has obtained a copy of what appears to be the MOU; State Department employees I spoke to reviewed the document and said it appeared authentic, but they were not able to vouch for its authenticity. The 15-page document is signed by Darren Beattie, a State Department official who was at some point the Acting President of the new USIP and was fired from his job during the first Trump administration for attending a white supremacist gathering. It contains the same details shared in the former USIP staffers’ letter to the Justice Department, and more. 

“DOS's use of the Premises shall be for the support of DOS's mission in a manner that will not be inconsistent with SIP's legal authorities and mission,” the purported MOU reads. But that’s already debatable, as The Handbasket has learned that one of the offices moving into the building is Shield of the Americas, Trump’s anti-drug cartel coalition helmed by former Secretary of DHS Kristi Noem. Noem is now a State Department employee, with a confirmed email address and phone number, and is listed on an organizational chart I reviewed. She reports to Deputy Secretary ⁠of State Christopher Landau in her new role. Both State staffers said it has been verbally confirmed to them that Noem’s new team will be housed in the USIP building. 

“It’s frustrating that some staff are being asked, with less than a week’s notice, to pack up and move into a building where there aren’t clear arrangements, there’s no US government IT infrastructure, and seating charts haven’t been established,” one of the staffers said.

Internal department communications reviewed by The Handbasket show the building referred to as “DJTIP,” and a staffer confirmed that the building appears on the drop-down of department buildings in the visitor access request form. In a February notice from a department official that I reviewed, it was declared that the Institute of Peace building “is now available to host Department of State and White House representational events” and is not available to any other departments.

“They're acting under the stay as though they have a license to use the building, to use money, to treat the building any way they want,” George Foote told Wired in January. “A stay is not permission for the loser of a case to hijack the property of the winning party.”

Meanwhile, former USIP staffers wait anxiously for the court’s decision as to whether they’ll have control of their privately-owned building returned to them, or if Trump is granted the power to continue grabbing anything he wants. 

The State Department did not respond to The Handbasket’s request for comment on the move.