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WASHINGTON — 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.
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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.
“No documents relevant to litigation are classified — therefore, they are not part of this directive. They are clearing out their building because it’ll be used by Customs and Border Patrol,” the official said.
“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.
Outside of emergency scenarios, “the priority is preservation for later consultation and continuity of sound policy,” Koh said.
Koh pointed to a ruling from U.S. District Judge Amir Ali, which was upheld by the Supreme Court, in which Ali said the Trump administration could not block congressionally appropriated foreign aid funds from reaching intended programs and agencies. He said that because of Ali’s ruling, documentation showing how funding was authorized and appropriated “should be preserved until the funds are fully expended.”
A former USAID official said they had never seen something like it before but also noted the unprecedented nature of everything going on with the agency.
“USAID never gave their lease away and had to evacuate their headquarters before,” the person said.
The American Foreign Service Association, a group that represents foreign service officers, also weighed in, with a spokesperson saying it was “alarmed by reports that USAID has directed the destruction of classified and sensitive documents that may be relevant to ongoing litigation regarding the termination of USAID employees and the cessation of USAID grants.”
AFSA joined Oxfam America and other government employee unions in filing a motion Monday to block the Trump administration from shutting down USAID, and it filed the motion seeking to stop destruction of records Tuesday.
“Federal law is clear: the preservation of government records is essential to transparency, accountability, and the integrity of the legal process,” the AFSA spokesperson said.
“The Federal Records Act of 1950 and its implementing regulations establish strict requirements for the retention of official records, particularly those that may be relevant to legal proceedings,” the spokesperson continued. “Furthermore, the unlawful destruction of federal records could carry serious legal consequences for anyone directed to act in violation of the law.”
The spokesperson said AFSA was closely monitoring the situation and urged USAID leadership to “provide immediate clarity on this directive.”
The director of National Security Counselors, a law firm that focuses on national security, said USAID’s move would not violate the Federal Records Act if “everything they’re destroying is digitized completely.”
“If this is just a cleanup crew and getting rid of excess records, it begs the question of why they’re in safes to begin with. That is fine,” said the firm’s executive director, Kel McClanahan. “But that is not what this sounds like.
“This sounds like the Trump administration is going in and acting as though it’s an embassy about to be overrun and they’re 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 USAID’s headquarters.
He said he has reached out to the National Archives asking for a halt in document destruction.
“These are not the actions of someone looking for true waste, fraud and abuse,” McClanahan said. “This is slash-and-burn mode and not leaving any evidence behind that could disprove their narrative.”
The Trump administration has targeted USAID, slashing its workforce. Crews removed signs from the USAID’s headquarters in February, and at the end of the month, USAID workers were given 15-minute slots to retrieve their belongings from headquarters.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday on X that the State Department was “officially cancelling 83% of the programs at USAID.”
Vaughn Hillyard is a correspondent for NBC News.
Abigail Williams is a producer and reporter for NBC News covering the State Department.
Megan Lebowitz is a politics reporter for NBC News.
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