Erica Carr, executive director of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), sent an email to the remaining employees to gather at the agency’s former headquarters in Washington, D.C., to destroy the documents together. Many of these documents contain sensitive information, including the contents of “classified vaults and personnel records.” The instruction was to shred as many documents as possible and to use special burning bags if shredders were not available.
This measure is being taken as part of the evacuation of the building after mass layoffs, while the Customs and Border Protection Agency is planning to move into the premises. The destruction of the document underscores the Trump administration’s tumultuous way of dismantling an agency that once managed an annual budget of $40 billion and employed more than 10,000 people worldwide.
A former USAID employee confirmed the authenticity of the email and called the destruction of agency documents unprecedented. He emphasized that he had never seen such mass destruction before and that in general, anyone who has a safe is responsible for keeping them up to date and destroying documents when they no longer need to be preserved. Sometimes the security department checks the safe and points out if the old material needs to be removed. This former employee spoke anonymously because he was afraid of possible reprisals.
A senior USAID official has instructed the agency’s remaining employees to gather at the agency’s former headquarters in Washington to “conduct an all-day joint operation to destroy documents,” most of which contain sensitive information.
The materials to be destroyed include the contents of the agency’s encrypted safes and personnel records in the Ronald Reagan building, according to an email sent by USAID’s acting executive director, Erica Carr , and obtained by Politico.
–“First, shred as many documents as possible and keep the burning bags in case the shredder is no longer available or needs a break.”
The email also stated that Carr instructed employees to mark cremation bags
with black felt-tip pens with the words “SECRET” and “USAID/B/IO”
(an internal abbreviation for “office or independent office”).
Translated and edited by L. Earth