Trump Orders USAID to DESTROY Documents
USAID employees told to burn, shred and destroy classified documents
USAID employees told to burn or shred classified documents
USAID employees told to burn or shred classified documents
The U.S. Agency for International Development is instructing its staff in Washington to shred and burn documents, according to an email obtained by NBC News.
Per the above article: An organization representing foreign service workers said it was “alarmed” by the directive because there could be documents “relevant to ongoing litigation.”
“The U.S. Agency for International Development is instructing its staff in Washington to shred and burn documents, according to an email obtained by NBC News. The move comes as President Donald Trump’s administration faces legal challenges over its attempt to shut down the federal agency.
The document destruction was set to take place Tuesday, according to an email from Erica Carr, the agency’s acting executive secretary. It is unclear how many people received the email, which 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 wrote.
Classified material is burned or shredded in certain scenarios — including emergency situations — but some former employees, as well as an organization representing foreign service workers, say the current directive is inappropriate.
Groups challenging the administration’s plans to shut down USAID filed an emergency motion Tuesday afternoon seeking to stop the document destruction.
“Defendants are, as this motion is being filed, destroying documents with potential pertinence to this litigation,” the motion said.
“Although Plaintiffs do not know at this moment which records are being destroyed, the destruction of records may severely undermine the agency’s ability to function. For example, destruction of records that contain information about the agency’s operations may make it extraordinarily difficult—if not impossible—to recreate and rebuild agency programming” if their lawsuit is successful, the filing said.
Later on Tuesday, the parties filed a joint status report which said that the government “will not destroy additional documents stored in the USAID offices in the Ronald Reagan Building without affording notice to Plaintiffs and an opportunity to raise the issue with the Court.”
The extent of document destruction before the government said it would pause is unclear. The government also said it did not destroy personnel records, according to the joint report.
The government will reveal “which documents were and were not destroyed” before 4 p.m. on Wednesday, the joint report said. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, who is presiding over the case, also ordered the parties opposed to the Trump administration’s actions to file their response on Thursday morning.
An administration official said that three dozen people received the email and that the information to be destroyed was “courtesy content” — information or documents given to them as a courtesy by other agencies.
“These are very old documents. They are in complete compliance with the Federal Records Act of 1950,” the official added. “Everyone involved in this process had a secret clearance or higher and was approved by the bureau of the documents that they were handling. A majority of the content is courtesy content. Most original copies are still in classified computer systems.”
Harold Koh, a legal adviser for the State Department during the Obama administration, said a directive to destroy classified information is not standard procedure, noting that such steps are instead typically taken when an embassy is under attack”.
