Trump appointment of Pete Marocco 'likely illegal'
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Left: President Donald Trump speaks to the media before walking across the South Lawn of the White House to board Marine One en route to Joint Base Andrews, Md., and on to Florida, Tuesday, July 1, 2025, in Washington (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein). Right: Pete Marocco, a political appointee focused on gutting USAID, departs after briefing the House Foreign Affairs Committee behind closed doors, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, March 5, 2025 (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite).

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., ruled Tuesday that President Donald Trump”s appointment of a lone board member at an agency he gutted with the help of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was “likely illegal.”

Senior U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, a George W. Bush appointee, wrote that Pete Marocco, who was not confirmed to his post by the U.S. Senate, likely “does not have the legal authority” to serve as the acting head of the U.S. African Development Foundation (USADF).

The judge sided instead with plaintiff Rural Development Innovations Limited (RDI), a Zambian consulting firm and USADF grantee that “offers technical support to small businesses including women-and youth-led enterprises” and whose very “existence is threatened” by the sweeping agency cuts.

As Law&Crime reported in March, RDI and two USADF employees filed suit in federal court after DOGE employees and Marocco, known for his role in dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development, moved to shut down the agency as much as the law allowed and proceeded to nuke the near entirety of its contracts and grants.

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