USAID's acting executive director ordered remaining staff to destroy classified agency documents

U.S. media outlet Politico revealed that the acting executive director of USAID, Erica Carr, sent an email to the remaining staff of this agency where she ordered them to meet this Tuesday at its former headquarters in the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C., to destroy all stored documents. The media outlet detailed that, in the email sent, Carr explained that the action would represent a major group effort that would last "all day."

The acting executive director commented that the documents they would destroy, many of which contain classified information, included not only staff documents from USAID but also "classified safes." Carr even specified that the material in question be destroyed first with a shredder and the remains then incinerated. "Shred as many documents first, and reserve the burn bags for when the shredder becomes unavailable or needs a break," Carr stated in his post.

Unprecedented action

Elsewhere in his article, Politicodetailed that a former USAID employee who was recently laid off in the wake of the U.S. government's massive cutback plan, which has been largely being handled by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), confirmed the authenticity of the email sent by Carr and even commented that his order to destroy USAID documents was unprecedented.

"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," said the former official, who, according to Politico, decided to hide his identity because of possible reprisals he could face from the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.

Similarly, the media outlet also detailed that the courier did not specify any reason for destroying the documents, adding that routine document disposal schedules could have been hampered by the way the building has been emptying drastically in recent weeks due to so many layoffs.