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Officials at the US Agency for International Development (USAid) have begun a large-scale destruction of classified documents at their headquarters in the Ronald Reagan building in Washington DC including with shredders and using “burn bags”, according to an internal email seen by the Guardian.
The email, sent by the acting USAid secretary, Erica Y Carr, instructs staff on procedures for clearing “classified safes and personnel documents” through shredding and the use of “burn bags” marked “SECRET” throughout the day on Tuesday.
“Shred as many documents first, and reserve the burn bags for when the shredder becomes unavailable or needs a break,” Carr wrote in the email, which provides detailed instructions on how to properly seal and label the burn bags.
The timing of this document purge comes amid ongoing controversy over what is essentially the shuttering of USAid following the Trump administration’s attempts to reshape the independent agency through the so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge).
Doge is headed by Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, and he has been tasked with slashing the number of jobs at the federal government and the amount of money it spends. Amid the huge turmoil that has gripped the US government as the Musk-led Doge carries out its activities, USAid has been among the worst-hit government agencies.
The huge cuts at USAid have affected projects across the globe as vast numbers of projects are paused, shuttered or have their funding slashed. There has been widespread outcry at the move from USAid workers but also across the international development sector as they warn of the detrimental impact it will have on some of the world’s most vulnerable populations.
When federal agencies are dissolved or restructured, their records are typically transferred to successor agencies or the National Archives and Records Administration (Nara) in accordance with the Federal Records Act (FRA). During the US’s hasty exit out of Afghanistan in 2021, Nara sent a reminder to safely and lawfully discard sensitive documents.
But compliance with the FRA in this situation is deeply in question, since the law explicitly prohibits the destruction of government records before their designated retention period – typically a minimum of three years. There’s also lingering concern that it risks permanently eliminating evidence needed for ongoing Freedom of Information Act (Foia) requests and future oversight investigations.
USAid’s office of the inspector general last year announced that it had initiated an investigation on agency oversight of Musk’s Starlink terminals being sent to and used by the government of Ukraine.
Democratic members of the Senate foreign relations committee sent a letter to the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, in February demanding answers about Doge’s access to USAid headquarters and agency records, though they did not specifically address potential document destruction.
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It’s unclear whether proper records management protocols are being followed during this process, or if documents that should be preserved are being destroyed.
“If you need additional burn bags or sharpie markers, please let me or the SEC InfoSec Team know,” the email said.
The state department did not respond to a request for comment.
