USAID Employees Reportedly Directed To “Burn” And “Shred” Documents

According to reports, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) employees were directed to meet at the agency’s former headquarters and destroy documents stored there.

POLITICO reports that a senior official at USAID instructed staffers to meet at the Ronald Reagan Building to go through “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,” an email from USAID acting executive secretary Erica Carr read, according to POLITICO.

USAID employees were told to burn or shred classified documents.

So what’s AG Pam Bondi’s next move? pic.twitter.com/oNqE7fFmfK

— Breanna Morello (@BreannaMorello) March 11, 2025

THIS IS A 5-ALARM FIRE Right now, as we speak, today, USAID is shredding and burning the contents of the agency’s classified safes — the key information needed to reconstruct the history of USAID’s weaponization both at home and abroad. THIS MUST BE STOPPED pic.twitter.com/G4uEuUY0yd

— Mike Benz (@MikeBenzCyber) March 11, 2025

From POLITICO:

Carr instructed staff to label the burn bags with the words “SECRET” and “USAID/B/IO/” (agency shorthand for “bureau or independent office”) in dark Sharpie.

The email didn’t provide any reason for the document destruction. The building is being emptied out after mass layoffs, which may have disrupted routine document destruction timetables. Customs and Border Protection is planning to move into the USAID facility, having rented 390,000 square feet of office space in the building last month.

The effort also underscores the tumultuous way in which the Trump administration is dismantling an agency that once managed a $40 billion annual budget and had more than 10,000 staff around the world.

BREAKING: USAID is telling people to prepare for an ALL DAY SHREDDING EVENT to burn and shred all USAID documents. This isn’t even parody. They’re deleting history in real time. SPEECHLESS. pic.twitter.com/akCVyj3juJ

— Autism Capital (@AutismCapital) March 11, 2025

HOLY SHLIT

A senior USAID official instructed staffers to SHRED and BURN documents today pic.twitter.com/0dIB6SVMlR

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) March 11, 2025

CBS News reports:

The documents being ordered destroyed could be evidence for multiple court filings against the Trump administration and the government aid agency, one source familiar with the instructions about the handling of USAID records told CBS News.

USAID staff also received another email around midday, Tuesday, instructing them to come by the USAID annex offices in Washington this Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to retrieve personal belongings. The email obtained by CBS News reads, “Staff will be given 15 minutes to complete this retrieval and must be finished removing items within their time slot only.” The email also appears to contradict the other email on how records should be handled.

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“While collecting their items, staff must ensure that proper records management practices are employed when identifying and/or disposing records, pursuant to the Federal Records Act and ADS 502,” the email said.

On Tuesday, Democracy Forward and Public Citizen Litigation Group filed a motion for an emergency temporary restraining order to stop what they called the unlawful destruction of federal records at USAID.

The State Department has so far not responded to CBS News’ requests for comment on either the email or the list of USAID grants that have been terminated by the State Department. On Monday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio tweeted from his personal X account confirming that 83% of USAID programs have been canceled.