Politics
USAID Staff Told To ‘Burn Or Shred’ Classified Documents
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has reportedly instructed its staff in Washington to destroy classified documents by burning or shredding them, according to an internal email.
The scheduled shredding of documents at the agency was planned for Tuesday, as stated in an email from Erica Carr, the agency’s acting executive secretary. The exact number of recipients of the email remains unknown.
In the email, Carr expressed her gratitude to the staff for their help with organizing classified materials and personal documents. Carr instructed in the email obtained by NBC News, “Shred as many documents first, and reserve the burn bags for when the shredder becomes unavailable or needs a break.”
“Thank you for your assistance in clearing our classified safes and personnel documents,” the email started. Staff members were instructed to mark the burn bags with “secret” using a marker.
The email provided no further explanation for the destruction of the documents.
WASHINGTON, DC – February 5, 2025: Protesters with signs gather at a rally in support of the U.S. Agency for International Development.
The Trump administration has long viewed USAID as an over-bloated bureaucracy, with some officials pushing to scale back its operations or even dismantle it entirely. The agency, responsible for overseeing billions in foreign aid, has been a target of critics who argue that taxpayer dollars are being mismanaged or funneled into programs that lack accountability.
The legal challenges facing the administration’s efforts to restructure USAID could now take on new weight as questions arise over whether the document destruction order is tied to those disputes. Organizations opposing the administration’s decision to close USAID filed an urgent motion on Tuesday afternoon to halt the destruction of documents.
Various groups, including former employees and an organization representing foreign service workers, have raised concerns about the Trump administration’s current actions towards USAID.
Amidst escalating fears about the potential shutdown of the agency, these groups took legal action by filing an emergency motion on Tuesday afternoon. Their goal is to halt the ongoing destruction of documents, which they claim is not only unnecessary but also potentially unlawful, given the current non-emergency context.
WASHINGTON D.C., USA – February 5, 2025: Protestors gather outside the Capitol in Washington, D.C. to protest the freeze on U.S. Foreign Aid and the dismantling of USAID.
The Federal Records Act (FRA) requires agencies to preserve records that document official actions, and unauthorized destruction can lead to serious legal consequences. Additionally, 18 U.S. Code § 2071 makes it a criminal offense to willfully and unlawfully remove, destroy, or mutilate government records, with penalties including fines and imprisonment.
Executive Order 13526 and regulations from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) dictate how classified materials must be handled. Typically, classified documents must follow a secure destruction process, but doing so in the midst of legal challenges—like USAID’s situation—could raise serious concerns about obstruction of justice or attempts to conceal information.
The Trump administration has drastically reshaped U.S. foreign aid policy by dismantling USAID, cutting 83% of its programs, and transferring the remaining ones to the State Department. This has resulted in a reduction of active projects from 6,200 to about 1,000 and a severe downsizing of the workforce from over 10,000 employees to fewer than 300.
