United States Agency for International Development staffers were instructed to shred or burn sensitive documents this week.
According to an email obtained by Politico, the USAID acting executive director, Erica Carr, told workers on Tuesday to destroy “classified safes and personnel documents” at the agency’s former Washington, D.C., headquarters at the Ronald Reagan Building. Carr called the directive an “all day” event.
‘More fake news hysteria!’
“Shred as many documents first, and reserve the burn bags for when the shredder becomes unavailable or needs a break,” Carr’s email read. “If you need to use the burn bags, do not overfill, and ensure the burn bags can be closed with staples at the top.”
She directed staff to use a dark marker to label burn bags as “SECRET” and “USAID/B/IO/,” which refers to “bureau or independent office.”
While her correspondence did not note a reason for the destruction of documents, it comes on the heels of the Trump administration announcing massive cuts to the agency. Earlier this week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio shared that the White House had canceled 5,200, or 83%, of USAID’s contracts.
Politico stated that most of the agency’s staff has either been laid off or placed on administrative leave. In late February, reports surfaced that an email had been sent to staffers, revealing that roughly 2,000 workers would be impacted by the layoffs.
Customs and Border Protection is slated to take over USAID’s former headquarters.
White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly responded to concerns about Carr’s directive.
“This was sent to roughly three dozen employees. The documents involved were old, mostly courtesy content (content from other agencies), and the originals still exist on classified computer systems,” she wrote in a post on X.
“More fake news hysteria!” Kelly declared.
A union representing USAID contractor workers requested that a federal judge move to block the destruction of the documents, the Associated Press reported.
The American Foreign Service Association stated it is concerned that the documents “may be relevant to ongoing litigation regarding the termination of USAID employees and the cessation of USAID grants.”
The State Department did not respond to the AP’s request for comment.
Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow with the Heritage Foundation, claimed that the USAID workers were “committing felonies under 18 USC 1519 in destroying Gov documents.” He called for all of the staffers involved to “be criminally prosecuted,” adding, “especially [the] acting director of USAID.”
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