FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: media@vera.org

NEW YORK — After Vera legal counsel met with DOGE staffers Nate Cavanaugh and Justin Aimonetti, Vera Institute of Justice President Nick Turner issued the following statement:

“DOGE staffers Nate Cavanaugh and Justin Aimonetti informed us of its plan to assign a DOGE team to the Vera Institute of Justice (Vera) as part of its larger plan to assign DOGE teams to ‘every institute or agency that has congressional monies appropriated to it.’ When asked about the legal standing for DOGE to investigate an independent nonprofit, Aimonetti, who is an attorney, deferred. When informed that the Department of Justice recently terminated grants to Vera, the DOGE staffers withdrew their request to install a team.

“We are sharing this information broadly with other nonprofits that receive federal funding — so they can be aware of DOGE’s plan to assign teams to investigate their operations. We also are exposing this latest intimidation tactic targeting private, independent mission-driven organizations and undermining civil society.

“On Friday, April 11, 2025, Vera received an email from DOGE staffer Nate Cavanaugh, requesting a meeting to discuss ‘having a DOGE team assigned to the organization.’ The email went on to say, ‘If I do not hear from you, I will assume you do not plan to comply with the President’s Executive Order.’ (See email here.) In a subsequent email, Cavanaugh clarified that the executive order referenced established DOGE.

“A week before this Friday’s email from DOGE, the Department of Justice singled out Vera and summarily terminated all of its grants to us, totaling $5 million, locking us out of the DOJ grant payment system without notice. Of the dozens of similar organizations that receive federal funding from the Department of Justice, we are the only one we know of that has had its grants terminated so abruptly. We are also the only criminal justice organization to have been targeted by DOGE.

“Vera, a 64-year-old national organization, is among the oldest, largest, and most prominent criminal justice nonprofits in the country. The Trump administration appears to be targeting Vera because of our prominence and our public opposition to President Trump’s mass deportation agenda and his gutting of federal funds for mental health and drug treatment, among other actions. While we are the first to be targeted, we know that we will not be the last.

“This administration has systematically attacked every aspect of civil society, from academia to law firms and the media, and is now coming after the nonprofit sector. We can only surmise that these tactics seek to silence us. It will not happen. We will not back down.”