Hours of body camera video shows what happened the day the Trump administration took over the U.S. Institute of Peace last year.
News4 obtained more than four hours of body-worn camera video that shows D.C. officers communicating with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to evict the institute’s staff, and the tense standoff between the two sides.
A key figure in the video told News4 he feels they were betrayed by the Metropolitan Police Department.
It’s been almost a year since the standoff that drew international headlines in the first months of the DOGE takeover of federal agencies. The Trump administration targeted USIP.
After one failed attempt to take over the building, DOGE employees and Trump’s pick to run the institute, Kenneth Jackson, showed up again on March 17. The doors were locked and only a few staff members, including the president of the institute, Ambassador George Moose, and the institute’s lawyers, including George Foote, were holed up in the building.
Foote recalled the day vividly.
“That was terrifying. I mean, I’ve practiced law for a long time and I’ve never seen that sort of confrontation, with police keeping me from going into a client’s property or some other property. It was really disorienting. It was very concerning,” he said.
“Looking back on it, how that was just a model for the things that have happened since then, of the Minneapolis situation, the federalization of the D.C. police department by the feds,” Foote continued. “So, it was a precursor in many ways.”
While D.C. police acknowledged at the time that they were asked by the U.S. attorney to assist in the takeover, just released police bodycam video shows exactly what happened.
The staff at the institute say MPD betrayed them.
“Yeah, betrayal is a pretty good word for the whole thing,” Foote said.
The video shows MPD Cmdr. Jason Bagshaw meeting with Jackson and another Trump official coordinating the takeover.
“So, the goal right now is to get access to the building and then basically everybody has to go,” Bagshaw says in the video.
“Especially this lawyer that’s representing – I’m going to cancel their contract, I’m going to fire him, and we’re going to take control of the agency,” Jackson is heard saying.
Jackson continued to explain why they needed MPD to help with the eviction and not federal police.
“Private building, and that’s why we need MPD. If it were GSA, it would be very simple,” he said.
Bagshaw contacted the institute’s head of security, Colin O’Brien, who is part of the staff inside the building. Bagshaw still didn’t reveal why he was there. The two shook hands.
O’Brien allowed Bagshaw into the building, thinking D.C. police were there because they had called for help.
“I’d love to be able to have an officer come down who’d actually like to file a report so that this is properly documented,” O’Brien says on the video.
Once inside, Bagshaw and O’Brien continue talking for several minutes, with Bagshaw still not revealing he was there on behalf of the Trump administration.
Bagshaw then walked to the door, allowing more MPD officers to enter.
O’Brien is heard telling them only to allow police in.
“I will ask that we only let D.C. Metro into the building,” he said.
Moments later, D.C. police opened the door for Jackson and several DOGE employees to enter.
As that played out in the basement, Foote and another attorney for the institute were upstairs with the institute’s president.
Within minutes, Foote went downstairs to confront police and the DOGE employees.
After several minutes of back and forth between the two sides, Foote directly asked Bagshaw if D.C. police were there to assist DOGE, and Bagshaw said no.
“Gentleman, you are escorting these folks into the building?” Foote asked.
“No, we got a call with reference to what was going on,” Bagshaw said.
Moments after that, as Foote tried to return to his office, police made it clear they were only allowing DOGE back upstairs.
“The four of you are not coming back in today. That’s where we are,” Jackson said in the video.
“You’ve got guns. I don’t,” Foote replied.
At that point, D.C. police escort the USIP staff out of the building.
But the standoff was not over. Moose and another staff member remained locked in the president’s fifth-floor offices, refusing to leave.
MPD officers spent the next hour trying to force entry to the upper floors, at times using knives to pry open stairwell doors.
Once Bagshaw and other officers reached the president’s offices, Bagshaw came face to face with Moose, separated only by a locked glass door. After a few minutes, Moose peacefully emerged from his office and confronted Bagshaw as he left.
“You know, were going to see you all in court,” Moose told him.
“Yeah,” Bagshaw said with a laugh. “We figured that.”
Moose said he thought MPD were friends.
“We are your friends,” Bagshaw replied.
“Well, I will take that and hope to see that demonstrated down the line,” Moore said.
For Foote, the incident was symbolic of what the country and D.C. would see play out over the next year under President Donald Trump.
“That was just a model for the things that’ve happened since then,” Foote said. “Of the Minneapolis situation, of the federalization of the D.C. police department by the feds. So, it was a precursor in many ways.”
MPD released the body-worn camera video after independent journalist, Marisa Kabas filed a Freedom of Information Act request and sued the police department with the help of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
“On a very basic level, you see how DOGE in the early days of the second Trump administration acted with absolute impunity,” she said. “They entered buildings and acted like they owned them.”
“I think that the video really confirms the initial reaction of many of us watching, and journalist, who saw what was happening and said, ‘This isn’t normal; this isn’t like anything we’ve seen before,’” Kabas said.
Foote and the staff fired by the Trump administration hope to one day retake control of the institute.
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