Campaign ally sowed trail of enmity during first Trump presidency and allegedly was present at January 6 riot. The Trump administration’s evisceration of US overseas aid has been presided over by a campaign ally who sowed a trail of enmity at multiple agencies during the first Trump presidency and has been publicly identified as allegedly having been present at the January 6 insurrection when rioters stormed the Capitol.

Peter Marocco has accumulated power in the office of foreign assistance, informally called “F”, that traditionally has helped coordinate US foreign aid programs. But under Marocco, it has enforced a full-scale freeze on overseas aid and a stop-work order that has in effect halted operations and already led to hundreds of layoffs in the United States and overseas. According to current and former USAid and state department officials, the office’s consolidation of power under Marocco has undermined congressional checks and balances and instead given authority to a non-Senate-confirmed appointee who is slashing and burning his way through overseas aid programs at USAid and the state department.

“He is not a disruptor. He’s a destroyer,” said a former USAid official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss Marocco. “And it’s clear to me. The plan is to come in, destroy USAid, take it down, and then build it up again, the way they want to do that.”. Marocco’s return to USAid has not been formally announced and the department website still lists a previous director for the office of foreign assistance. Many staff only learned that Marocco had been appointed from emails and cables drafted by him ordering them to stop work.

A former marine and conservative activist from Dallas, Marocco served short stints of just a year each at the state department, commerce department, defense department and USAid during the first Trump presidency. In 2020, a 13-page complaint by USAid staffers was placed in its dissent channel – a framework for foreign service staff to express constructive criticism – accusing Marocco of undermining and micromanaging employees in a way that “rapidly degraded” a small department focused on political transitions. Critics say he is now applying the same playbook of laborious reviews and vague directives to all of USAid.

Marocco was also allegedly photographed and filmed inside the Capitol building during the January 6 riots, according to volunteer activists who have posted a widely cited investigation. Marocco has not been charged with a crime. Asked about the allegation by D Magazine, Marocco did not address whether he had been at the Capitol, but described it as “petty smear tactics and desperate personal attacks”.

He joined Trump’s transition team in December as an adviser on national security personnel matters. “Democrats and their allies in the media who think they are going to obstruct our ability to deliver on this mandate by going back to the same January 6 playbook of smears and faux outrage that was soundly rejected by the American people will be disappointed,” Trump’s spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, told Politico at the time.

The state department declined to respond to questions regarding Marocco’s appointment, his alleged participation in the events of 6 January 2021, and the department’s review process for evaluating overseas aid and potential waivers to the program. “The reaction was recoil and horror,” said a former senior USAid official regarding Marocco’s appointment. “I don’t know if they really believe in development or humanitarian assistance unless it’s transactional.”.

Marocco strode into the offices of USAid this week flanked by members of Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency”, a special group Trump created, with clipboards in hand. Several hours later, almost 60 senior officials from the office had been put on paid leave. Veteran aid officials with decades of experience at the agency were escorted from the building by security, according to current and former USAid officials, and their email accounts were frozen.

“They wanted to decapitate the organisation,” said a current USAid employee. “And they did it by pushing aside the leadership and decades of experience.”. The purge followed confusion within USAid over the stop-work orders drafted by Marocco and signed by Marco Rubio, the new secretary of state, leading some to believe that limited actions could continue if funds had already been committed. “We have identified several actions within USAid that appear to be designed to circumvent the president’s executive orders and the mandate from the American people,” wrote Jason Gray, USAid’s acting administrator, saying the relevant staff would be put on administrative leave.