Washington, Mar 18 (AP) Employees of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency have entered the US Institute of Peace despite protests from the nonprofit that it is not part of the executive branch and is instead an independent agency.

The organisation's CEO, George Moose, said, “DOGE has broken into our building.”

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The DOGE workers gained access to the building after several unsuccessful attempts Monday and after having been turned away on Friday, a senior US Institute of Peace official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

It was not immediately clear what the DOGE staffers were doing or looking for in the nonprofit's building, which is across the street from the State Department in Washington's Foggy Bottom neighborhood.

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DOGE has expressed interest in the nonprofit for weeks but has been rebuffed by lawyers who argued that the institute's status protected it from the kind of reorganization that is occurring in other federal agencies.

The US Institute of Peace says on its website that it's a nonpartisan, independent organization “dedicated to protecting US interests by helping to prevent violent conflicts and broker peace deals abroad.”

The nonprofit says it was created by Congress in 1984 as an “independent nonprofit corporation,“ and it does not meet US Code definitions of “government corporation,” “government-controlled corporation” or “independent establishment." (AP)

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