A stunning email issued by a USAID official today will generate a national uproar and provoke another massive legal battle.
Politico obtained an email from a senior official at USAID ordering the remaining staff to convene at the agency’s former headquarters on Tuesday to destroy all remaining documents by either shredding or burning them.
USAID’s acting executive secretary Erica Carr told the staff to meet at the RRB 14th Street Lobby to “shred as many documents first, and reserve the burn bags for when the shredder becomes unavailable or needs a break.”
Carr also ordered staff to label the burn bags with the words “SECRET” and “USAID/B/IO/” in dark Sharpie, if possible. She also said to make sure the burn bags did not overfill and to close them with staples at the top.
This means classified documents will be (and are) being burned.
Here is the email:
A former USAID official confirmed to Politico that the email was real and said he had “never seen something like this.”
“I’ve never seen something like this — en masse. Everyone with a safe is supposed to keep it up to date and destroy documents when they no longer need to be stored. Sometimes security will check your safe and tell you if you have to clean out old material.”
NBC News reported that groups challenging the Trump administration’s efforts to shutter USAID have filed an emergency motion to stop this destruction immediately.
“Defendants are, as this motion is being filed, destroying documents with potential pertinence to this litigation,” the filing reads.
“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 motion adds.
NBC News notes that U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, who was appointed by Trump, is presiding over the case and has yet to rule on the request. Both sides have been ordered to file a status report on the motion by tomorrow morning and a schedule for moving forward.
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