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A high-ranking official at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has issued a directive to staff members, instructing them to destroy classified documents and personnel files, amidst a wave of scrutiny and legal challenges facing the agency.
In an email sent on Tuesday, Acting Executive Secretary Erica Carr urged employees to shred as many documents as possible, recommending that any excess material be disposed of using burn bags should the shredders become overburdened. Carr expressed appreciation for the employees’ cooperation in assisting with the destruction of sensitive records, as reported by NBC News.
This event unfolds against a backdrop of legal battles concerning the authority of tech entrepreneur Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency, which is in the process of dismantling various federal agencies, including USAID, and has reportedly laid off thousands of employees without direct congressional oversight.
The American Foreign Service Association expressed its alarm regarding this directive, emphasizing the importance of these documents to ongoing legal proceedings related to the dismissals at USAID and the status of its grant operations.
Last week, the Trump administration announced plans to eliminate over 80% of USAID’s programs, which are fundamental to global humanitarian assistance, with remaining functions being absorbed by the State Department.
Critics are concerned that this sweeping destruction of documents may be an attempt to circumvent legal requirements and avoid compliance with existing court orders.
In response to these actions, advocacy groups, including the American Foreign Service Association, have filed an emergency motion seeking to halt the destruction of records, explicitly naming Trump in their request.
The court motion argues that this document shredding could thwart the possibility of restoring the agency should the court rule against its dissolution, asserting that the defendants are potentially eliminating evidence relevant to ongoing litigation.
An unnamed administration official stated that while the shredding of classified documents is not associated with any current lawsuits, the destruction of personnel records is indeed pertinent to ongoing cases.
Harold Koh, who served as a legal advisor at the State Department under the Obama administration, emphasized the likelihood that many of these documents being destroyed hold critical evidence for various legal disputes.
In an emergency court session, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols has summoned both parties back to court to further discuss the implications of the emergency motion.
Separately, federal District Judge Amir Ali in Washington, D.C. previously mandated the Trump administration to disburse payments owed under USAID contracts. Judge Ali criticized the shutdown of the agency and the freezing of funds as a potential overreach of executive authority, which has been rejected by the Supreme Court in past rulings.
The high court recently upheld Judge Ali’s prior decision, which involved a directive for the Trump administration to pay $2 billion to USAID contractors.
Carr’s directive to approximately 36 employees has raised significant concerns regarding the Trump administration’s approach to historical records within the federal government, as the shredding of documents has typically been reserved for extreme circumstances.
In a related context, reports emerged last week indicating that the Department of Defense is actively removing images and references to women, people of color, and individuals from the LGBTQ community in an apparent effort to erase diversity-related content, leading to fears that key historical documents could also be lost.
Kel McClanahan, director of a national security-focused legal firm, stated that the mass destruction of USAID documents appears to be more aligned with an effort to eliminate evidence that may contradict the current administration’s narrative than a genuine investigation into inefficiencies.
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