PETE MAROCCO

During the meeting, Azbej highlighted the previous administration’s interference in Hungary’s domestic affairs, including the allocation of 7.4 million dollars in US taxpayer funds to support opposition parties during the Biden presidency. ‘Pete Marocco pledged to immediately halt any funding programmes aimed at interfering in Hungary’s internal affairs or promoting migration,’ Azbej stated.

According to NBC News, in 2023 “online sleuths who aided the FBI in cases against hundreds of Jan. 6 rioters identified Marocco and his now-wife as being among the rioters who stormed the Capitol in 2021.” The online group Sedition Hunters — which worked to identify participants in the Capitol riot using open source research and facial recognition technology — alleged in November that Marocco and his wife, Merritt Corrigan, entered the Capitol during the riot through a broken window.

“What he’s doing now is frighteningly similar to everything he was trying to do at USAID before, but this time he’s destroying it,” said a USAID official familiar with Marocco's past actions.

“He’s the most unqualified person to be sitting in any seat of government, let alone the person who has the keys to our foreign assistance,” said another former colleague who still works at USAid.

The instruction to halt nearly all international aid was written by Marocco, who is also the chief of foreign assistance at the State Department. Marocco “knows how the system works and is dismantling it at every turn,” according to one aid official.

Marocco, who drew internal fire when he worked in numerous agencies in the Trump administration and more recently was a conservative activist in Dallas, has been seen at the transition’s Florida headquarters working on hiring, including for the State Department, according to two of the people who saw him. One of the people said he was interviewing candidates this week.

Pete Marocco, the executive director of Dallas HERO, and his wife, Merritt Corrigan Marocco, have been accused by citizen investigators of entering the U.S. Capitol during the January 6, 2021, insurrection.

Like many Trump political appointees, Peter Marocco took a wrecking ball to the bureau he was meant to run, slashing funding that would mediate conflicts and promote democracy, and hamstringing operations in the field to curry favor with the White House. Unlike many of those other appointees, Marocco was pushed out of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Bureau for Conflict Prevention and Stabilization after this article was published—then he returned, before a final exit.

A Trump loyalist who received major promotions despite being previously dismissed from positions at the State and Defense Departments over similar concerns, Marocco’s return comes just as executive branch agencies are under deadline to decide whether to strip workplace protections from career federal civil service workers.

USAID officials accused Marocco of derailing routine work for the bureau by insisting he approve any new hires and sign off on thousands of USAID contracts that were already approved by USAID officials in the field.

Tensions flared so much that some staff members put together a 13-page memo detailing their frustrations. They alleged that “thousands” of hours of staff time had been spent on unnecessary and unproductive requests from Marocco.

"[Marocco’s] proposed pivot would overrule USAID, the Embassy, and the interagency’s strategic priorities, likely run afoul of the Establishment clause, and risk worsening ... tense sectarian tensions by affirming one side’s narrative while stigmatizing the other,” the complaint reads.

Another political appointee at the agency, Peter Marocco, told colleagues he was 'under pressure' from the White House’s Office of Management and Budget to cut U.S.A.I.D. spending, according to another agency official. Mr. Marocco has delayed funding to help Ukraine’s government ward off Russian interference, the official said, even though he oversees efforts to prevent conflict in countries facing political transition.

"To load up an agency with political appointees who do not have the expertise, how then do you expect that agency to perform against its mission?" said Gayle Smith, who was the aid agency’s administrator during the Obama administration.

Since taking up his post as assistant to the administrator, Marocco has held up funding for scores of transitional initiatives, including a program in Ukraine aimed at countering Russian efforts to destabilize the country’s democratic government.

Two U.S. officials who worked directly with Marocco, both of whom requested anonymity for fear of reprisal, described how he frequently undermined career staffers, causing several to flee their divisions.

Apart from her Capitol Hill connection, Chang received support from Marocco at the State Department. Marocco helped circulate her résumé and vouched for her as she sought out a post at State, three sources familiar with the matter said.