USAID Employees Ordered to Shred or Burn Classified Docs — Court Steps In

A senior official at the U.S. Agency for International Development ordered the agency’s remaining employees to destroy internal documents at the now-former headquarters in Washington on Tuesday, according to an email sent to staff, setting off a legal challenge on Tuesday.

Employees were instructed to destroy items in the agency’s “classified safes and personnel documents” on Tuesday at the Ronald Reagan Building, according to an email sent by the agency’s acting executive director, Erica Carr, which was obtained by the Washington Examiner.

“Shred as many documents first, and reserve the burn bags for when the shredder becomes unavailable or needs a break,” the email said. Carr instructed staff to label the burn bags with the words “SECRET” and “USAID/B/IO/,” which is an agency abbreviation for “bureau or independent office.” The email didn’t provide any reason for the document destruction.

Following news of the email, unions representing USAID workers and federal employees asked a judge to intervene in any destruction of classified documents. The American Federation of Government Employees and American Foreign Service Association allege that Trump overstepped his authority by shuttering the independent agency established by Congress.

The plaintiffs asked U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols for a temporary restraining order to block the destruction of records and argued that the loss of vital information could prevent USAID from resuming operations if they prevail in the case. Nichols set a Wednesday morning deadline for both sides to submit a status report.

White House Deputy press secretary Anna Kelly said the email was sent to “roughly three dozen employees” and downplayed the coverage of the burn orders as “more fake news hysteria.” U.S. Customs and Border Protection is planning to move into the USAID facility.

“The USAID building will soon be occupied by CBP. 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!”

In a separate case, a federal judge ruled on Monday that the Trump administration cannot refuse to spend foreign aid appropriated by Congress. However, Judge Amir H. Ali stopped short of ordering Trump officials to restore the canceled contracts.

The agency has terminated thousands of employees and contracts, leaving only a few hundred staffers on the job and shutting down the agency’s headquarters. This comes after the Trump administration canceled 83% of U.S. foreign aid contracts on Monday.

“The 5200 contracts that are now cancelled spent tens of billions of dollars in ways that did not serve, (and in some cases even harmed), the core national interests of the United States,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on X early Monday morning.

Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY), the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said it appears the Trump administration has not been complying with the Federal Records Act.

“Haphazardly shredding and burning USAID documents and personnel files seems like a great way to get rid of evidence of wrongdoing when you’re illegally dismantling the agency,” Meeks said in a statement.

According to an aide, Democratic staff on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has also reached out to USAID and the State Department for more information about how they are complying with the records laws.