USAID Employees Ordered To Shred And Burn Classified Records
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According to an email that NBC News obtained, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has told employees to shred and burn classified documents. Talk about an email problem! DOGE has recently targeted the agency.
An email Tuesday from the agency’s acting executive secretary, Erica Carr, told employees to destroy the records and thanked them for their “assistance in clearing our classified safes and personnel documents,” in a move that foreign service workers said it was “alarmed” by the directive because there could be documents “relevant to ongoing litigation.
NBC News reports:
“Shred as many documents first, and reserve the burn bags for when the shredder becomes unavailable or needs a break,” Carr wrote.
Classified material is burned or shredded in certain scenarios — including emergency situations — but some former employees, as well as an organization representing foreign service workers, say the current directive is inappropriate.
Groups challenging the administration’s plans to shut down USAID filed an emergency motion Tuesday afternoon seeking to stop the document destruction.
“Defendants are, as this motion is being filed, destroying documents with potential pertinence to this litigation,” the motion said.
“Although Plaintiffs do not know at this moment which records are being destroyed, the destruction of records may severely undermine the agency’s ability to function. For example, destruction of records that contain information about the agency’s operations may make it extraordinarily difficult—if not impossible—to recreate and rebuild agency programming, if their lawsuit is successful, the filing said.
Later on Tuesday, the parties filed a joint status report which said that the government “will not destroy additional documents stored in the USAID offices in the Ronald Reagan Building without affording notice to Plaintiffs and an opportunity to raise the issue with the Court.”
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An administration official said that three dozen people received the email and that the information to be destroyed was “courtesy content” — information or documents given to them as a courtesy by other agencies.
“No documents relevant to litigation are classified — therefore, they are not part of this directive. They are clearing out their building because it’ll be used by Customs and Border Patrol,” the official said
Harold Koh, a legal adviser for the State Department during the Obama administration, pointed to a ruling from U.S. District Judge Amir Ali, which was upheld by the Supreme Court. Ali said the Trump administration could not block congressionally appropriated foreign aid funds from reaching intended programs and agencies. He added that because of Ali’s ruling, documentation showing how funding was authorized and appropriated “should be preserved until the funds are fully expended.”
Donald hasn’t mentioned this yet, but he’s been busy turning the White House into a car dealership.