Washington – The United States Agency for International Development is instructing its staff in Washington to crush and burn documents, according to an email obtained by NBC News. The measure occurs when the administration of President Donald Trump faces legal challenges about his attempt to close the federal agency.
The destruction of the document was carried out on Tuesday, according to an email by Erica Carr, an interim executive secretary of the agency. It is not clear how many people received email, which thanked the workers for their “help to clean our classified safes and personnel documents.”
“Rhred so many documents first and reserve the burning bags for when the crusher is not available or needs a break,” Carr wrote.
The burning or crushing of classified material occurs during certain scenarios, even in emergency situations, but some former employees, as well as an organization that represents foreign service workers, say that the current directive is inappropriate.
A state department spokesman did not respond immediately to a request for comments.
Harold Koh, legal advisor to the State Department during the administration of President Barack Obama, said the measure was not a standard procedure, and points out that the steps like this are generally taken when an embassy is under attack.
Outside the emergency scenarios, “the priority is the preservation of the subsequent consultation and the continuity of the sound policy,” Koh said.
Koh pointed out a ruling by the American district judge Amir Ali, which was confirmed by the Supreme Court, in which Ali said the Trump administration could not block the foreign aid funds assigned by Congress to reach the planned programs and agencies. He said that due to Ali’s decision, the documentation that shows how the financing was authorized and assigned “must be preserved until the funds are completely spent.”
A former USAID official said they had never seen something like this before, but that he also noticed the unprecedented nature of everything that happens with the agency.
“USAID never gave his lease and had to evacuate his headquarters before,” said the person.
The American Foreign Service Association, a group that represents the Officers of the Foreign Service, also intervened, with a spokesman who said that it was “alarmed by the reports that Usaid has directed the destruction of classified and sensitive documents that can be relevant to continuous litigation with respect to the termination of USAID employees and the cessation of USAID subsidies.”
AFSA joined Oxfam America and other government employee unions to present a motion on Monday to prevent the Trump administration from excluding Usaid.
“Federal law is clear: the preservation of government records is essential for transparency, responsibility and integrity of the legal process,” said the AFSA spokesman.
“The Federal Registries Law of 1950 and its implementation regulations establish strict requirements for the retention of official records, particularly those that can be relevant to legal procedures,” the spokesman continued. “In addition, the illegal destruction of federal records could have serious legal consequences for any person aimed at acting in violation of the law.”
The spokesman said that AFSA was closely monitoring the situation and urged USAID leadership to “provide immediate clarity about this directive.”
The director of the National Security Directors, a law firm that focuses on national security, said the USAID measure would not violate the Federal Registration Law if “everything they are destroying is digitized completely.”
“If this is just a cleaning team and getting rid of excessive records, ask the question of why they are in safes to begin with. That’s fine, “said the firm’s executive director Kel McClanahan.” But that is not how this sounds. “
“This seems that the Trump administration is entering and acting as if it were an embassy about to be invaded and are destroying the documents to keep them out of the wrong hands. But this is the Ronald Reagan building, ”McClanahan added, referring to the building that housed the USAID headquarters.
He said he communicated with the national archives, asking for a stop in the destruction of documents.
“These are not the actions of someone who seeks true waste, fraud and abuse,” McClanahan said. “This is Slash and Burn mode and not leave any evidence that can refute your narrative.”
The Trump administration has attacked USAID, reducing the agency’s workforce. The teams eliminated signs from the USAID headquarters in February, and the end of the month, the USAID workers received 15 -minute spaces to recover their belongings from the agency’s headquarters.
The Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, told X on Monday that his department was “officially canceling 83% of the programs in Usaid.”
