A senior USAID official on Tuesday ordered the agency’s remaining staff to report to its current Washington headquarters that the group had been destroying documents “throughout the day,” many of which contain sensitive information, Politico reports.
According to an email from USAID Acting Executive Director Erica Carr, among the materials marked for destruction are “classified safes and personnel documents” in the Ronald Reagan Building.
“First, shred as many documents as possible and reserve the incinerator bags for when the shredder is not working or needs a break,” read the email, which instructs employees to label the incinerator bags in dark ink “SECRET” and “USAID/B/IO” (which stands for “bureau or independent office”).
According to the report, the email did not justify the destruction of the document, but the building is currently being emptied following mass layoffs that may have disrupted the normal destruction of materials.
The effort also underscores in a blistering way the Trump administration is dismantling an agency that once managed a $40 billion annual budget and had more than 10,000 employees worldwide.
An effort last month by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to access USAID’s secure computer systems, including information about employee security clearances, sparked an uproar at the agency that prompted the administration to place two of the agency’s security officers on administrative leave. A DOGE spokesperson later said there was no inappropriate access to classified material . – POLITICO
According to a former USAID employee: “I’ve never seen anything like this – on a massive scale. Anyone who has a safe should keep it up to date and destroy documents when they are no longer needed. Sometimes security will check your safe and tell you if you need to purge old material.”
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