Staff at the US African Development Foundation placed on leave

A week ago, a federal judge said he could find no statute that gave U.S. President Donald Trump authority to appoint Peter Marocco — director of the State Department’s Office of Foreign Assistance — as head of the U.S. African Development Foundation. Despite this, USADF staff on Tuesday began receiving letters from Marocco, asserting his role by stating that he was placing full-time employees on immediate administrative leave. “During the period that I have you on administrative leave, I prohibit you from entering ADF premises, accessing ADF systems, or attempting to use your position or authority with ADF in any way without my prior permission or the prior permission of a supervisor in your chain of command,” wrote Marocco in the memo, which was obtained by Devex. The notices were sent to 90% of USADF’s full-time staff, according to an agency staff member who agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity. In the letters, Marocco asked staff for their personal email addresses, phone numbers, and mailing addresses. Marocco, who signed the letter as USADF’s acting chief executive officer and president, seemingly elevated himself from a previous appointment made by Trump late last month. “We have pointed out multiple times that the judge has not recognized Mr. Marocco’s authority,” said the staff member, who spoke to Devex on Wednesday. “He has not addressed any of that.” These letters come while the agency — and Marocco — are in the midst of a legal battle for USADF’s control. “We want to be cautious, and we don’t want to antagonize Mr. Marocco any further,” the staff member said, adding that USADF’s employees had been told to heed Marocco’s administrative leave requests. “We’ll wait to hear what the courts decide.” Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon declined to file a temporary restraining order against the Trump administration but appeared receptive to a request for a preliminary injunction, setting a deadline of March 21 for USADF’s president, Ward Brehm, to file a motion. Both sides now have until April 16 to prepare their case — but at the same time, things have continued to fray. Last week, Trump tapped three officials to serve on the USADF board, including a key Project 2025 author and the current head of the White House budget office, Russell Vought. Those nominees have yet to be confirmed by Capitol Hill. Days later, the top lawmaker on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee — Republican Rep. James Risch from Idaho — introduced a bill to abolish USADF entirely, citing “a nearly two-year investigation into serious allegations of waste, fraud, and abuse.” The agency responded, claiming the bill was based on a “false and partisan narrative that distorts facts,” attributing the allegations to “a disgruntled former employee.” The back-and-forth on these investigations remains in question: the process is still ongoing, and while audits of USADF’s finances for fiscal years 2022, 2023, and 2024 found its financial statements were “presented fairly” with no “material weaknesses over financial reporting,” in August, the Office of the Inspector General stated that USADF failed to alert the watchdog agency about suspected cases of “grant funds and equipment” misuse. Either way, it’s thrown USADF directly into the Trump administration’s crosshairs. Throughout the week, the team at Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has continued to seek access to USADF’s systems, the staff member told Devex. In the coming days, the agency’s leadership expects to receive directives similar to those that hit the Inter-American Foundation and the U.S. Agency for International Development — namely, a forced reduction in workforce. The State Department did not respond to a request for comment on this story.