Pete Marocco Tapped To Lead USAID Despite Allegations He Attended Jan. 6 Riot

As the fate of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) hangs in the balance as the Trump administration considers dismantling it, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has named the director of foreign assistance at the State Department, Pete Marocco, to lead USAID.

Acting Deputy Marocco advised staffers in a memo sent out last week that they were “being placed on excused absence (administrative leave) with pay effective immediately.”

Before being tapped to lead the department, he worked with Trump administration officials in the first two weeks of Donald Trump’s presidency to downsize the agency from a distance.

Marocco formerly held a national security position in USAID during Trump’s first term, where he attempted to consolidate power and cut funding, which eventually led to him being pushed out of office.

“He hasn’t been responsible for building anything ever. He’s very good at turning things off, questioning things, and making people feel uncomfortable. He’s taken apart a lot of things,” a USAID staffer told NBC News.

There have also been allegations that Marocco was at the Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot. Marocco has said that he was the target of “smears.” In 2023, online investigators reported to NBC News that Marocco and his now-wife could be seen on CCTV climbing through a broken window.

“Photos of the person who entered the building were a strong facial recognition match for publicly available images of Marocco, online sleuths said,” reported NBC News.

An executive order signed by Trump on his first day has halted all foreign aid temporarily as the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency eyes USAID to be shut down. Trump has said that he does not think it would take an act of Congress to abolish the department.

With foreign assistance at a standstill and hundreds of USAID employees fired, Marocco is set to begin reviewing all the work done by USAID at Rubio’s request. The review could lead to the “suspension or elimination of programs, projects or activities; closing or suspending missions or post; closing, reorganizing, downsizing, or renaming establishments, organizations, bureaus, centers, or offices; reducing the size of the workforce at such entities and contracting out or privatizing functions or activities performed by federal employees,” Rubio said.