Peter Marocco, a once-relatively-unknown Republican political appointee who cycled through multiple jobs at the Pentagon, the U.S. Department of Commerce, the State Department, and USAID during Trump’s first term, has emerged as the dominant arbiter of who does and doesn’t get U.S. foreign assistance in the president’s second term.
As such, he’s been named in one of the main lawsuits contesting the administration decision to pull thousands of USAID employees from their jobs, and in a recent legal rebuttal, he accused some of those employees of disobeying Trump’s directives to halt and review foreign assistance programs.
“The placement of a substantial number of USAID personnel on paid administration leave was the only way to pause operations, faithfully implement the pause, and conduct a full and unimpeded audit of USAID’s operations,” Marocco wrote in response to a lawsuit filed by a pair of unions representing USAID staffers.
In that lawsuit, the administration persuaded the judge that it had the right to place thousands of staff on administrative leave and recall employees stationed overseas.
Shortly after that ruling, on Sunday night, USAID began removing nearly everyone left at what was once a 10,000-person agency. Thousands were placed on administrative leave, and more — between 1,600 to 2,000 staffers — have been told they will be eliminated entirely.
In the recent court filing, Marocco laid out which staff he expects to survive the Trump administration’s widespread culling, and which of these 611 employees have been deemed “essential.”
He mentioned staffers in the travel office, stating they were needed to help other USAID employees being recalled to the United States. Also on the list: Those with “subject matter expertise,” including staff from USAID’s regional bureaus; employees overseeing emergency humanitarian, food, and medical assistance, along with information, security, and legal issues; and the agency’s human resources team, even though USAID’s chief human resources officer was previously severed from the agency after refusing to fire more staff.
Read: Why are thousands being culled from USAID, and who will be left standing?