Politico: USAID official directed staff to destroy sensitive documents

A senior official at the United States Agency for International Development directed multiple staff members to destroy documents, many of which are sensitive, Politico reported.

Politico said an email sent under the name of Erica Carr — acting executive secretary at USAID — told employees they needed to meet at the agency’s headquarters for an “all day” effort to destroy personnel documents and contents of “classified safes.”

“Shred as many documents first, and reserve the burn bags for when the shredder becomes unavailable or needs a break,” Carr reportedly wrote.

Personal Services Contractor Association, a union representing thousands of USAID contractors now furloughed or fired, asked a federal judge Tuesday to stop any document destruction to preserve evidence, according to the Associated Press.

Carr also instructed staff to label the “burn bags” “SECRET” with a Sharpie, according to Politico. The outlet said a former employee confirmed its account of the email and described the destruction of documents as unprecedented.

“I’ve never seen something like this — en masse,” that person reportedly said. “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.”

Anna Kelly, deputy press secretary of the White House, wrote in a post on social media platform X that a similar report of the email by a CBS News employee was “more fake news hysteria.”

“This was sent to roughly three dozen employees. The documents involved were old, mostly courtesy content (content from other agencies), and the originals still exist on classified computer systems,” Kelly said.

On Monday, Secretary Marco Rubio of the State Department announced that more than 80% of USAID’s programs have been canceled.

“The 5200 contracts that are now canceled spent tens of billions of dollars in ways that did not serve, (and in some cases even harmed), the core national interests of the United States,” he wrote on X.

Rubio thanked his staff and the Department of Government Efficiency for their work. DOGE head Elon Musk replied it was “tough, but necessary.”

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