USAID official orders documents to be shredded and burned, lawsuit filed

• A senior official at USAID instructed employees to shred and burn documents, prompting legal action from Democracy Forward and Public Citizen Litigation Group. They filed a motion for an emergency restraining order to preserve the documents under the Federal Records Act.
• The directive came after Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced cuts to USAID programs.
• Thousands of USAID staff have been laid off, and concerns are raised over the destruction of potentially important documents. A judge set a Wednesday morning deadline for briefs on the issue.

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A senior official with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) instructed employees via email to shred and burn documents, according to court documents. USAID’s Acting Executive Secretary, Erica Carr, appointed under the Biden administration in January 2021, sent the email.

Carr thanked workers for their “assistance in clearing our classified safes and personnel documents.”

“Shred as many documents first, and reserve the burn bags for when the shredder becomes unavailable or needs a break,” Carr’s email states.

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“Democracy Forward” and “Public Citizen Litigation Group” filed a motion for an emergency temporary restraining order to stop the agency from destroying documents.

“Federal records belong to the American people, not to any administration looking to cover its tracks. We are taking immediate legal action to stop this reckless purge before irreparable damage is done to an institution that plays a critical role in global stability and humanitarian aid,” Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, said in a statement.

The motion seeks to preserve the documents under the Federal Records Act. “Defendants are destroying these records as this document is being written. Immediate relief from the court to maintain the status quo is required to prevent irreparable harm,” the motion states.

The directive came on Monday afternoon—the same day U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that, after a six-week review, the Trump administration would cancel 83% of USAID’s programs.

“In consultation with Congress, we intend for the remaining 18% of programs we are keeping (approximately 1,000) to now be administered more effectively under the State Department,” Rubio said in a post on X.

In February, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated that Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency identified areas where USAID was spending taxpayer dollars.

“Through USAID over the past several years, these are some of the insane priorities that that organization has been spending money on. $1.5 million to advance DEI in Serbia’s workplaces. $70,000 for a production of a DEI musical in Ireland. $47,000 for a transgender opera in Colombia. $32,000 for a transgender comic book in Peru,” Leavitt told reporters on February 3. “I don’t know about you, but as an American taxpayer, I don’t want my dollars going toward this crap, and I know the American people don’t either. That’s exactly what Elon Musk has been tasked by President Trump to do.”

Proponents of the organization argue that USAID serves a vital role in combating deadly diseases, alleviating poverty, promoting democracy, and addressing humanitarian needs while advancing U.S. interests abroad.

Thousands of USAID staffers have been laid off.

The American Foreign Service Association (AFSA), a union representing some USAID workers, expressed concern that USAID has ordered the destruction of classified and sensitive documents potentially relevant to ongoing legal cases.

Judge Carl Nichols set a Wednesday morning deadline for the plaintiffs and government to submit briefs on the issue.