USAID Order to Shred Documents Sparks Lawsuits

Employees from the U.S. Agency for International Development are pushing back in the form of lawsuits against orders they received from a senior official to destroy sensitive documents, The Hill reported.

On Tuesday, The New York Times verified an email by acting USAID Executive Secretary Erica Y. Carr directing remaining employees to destroy classified and personal documents. "Shred as many documents first, and reserve the burn bags for when the shredder becomes unavailable or needs a break," the directive read.

The directive has sparked multiple concerns ove the legality of the order as well the overall objective of such a wide-ranging and permanent destruction of documents. Two lawsuits were filed on Wednesday on behalf of the employees.

"This directive suggests a rapid destruction of agency records on a large scale that could not plausibly involve a reasoned assessment of the records retention obligations for the relevant documents under the [Federal Records Act] or in relation to this ongoing litigation," the American Foreign Service Association said in its suit.

The Personal Services Contractor Association said in its suit that attorneys with the Department of Justice have not clarified "how and why burning and shredding is consistent with preservation obligations in litigation, which documents are being destroyed and why, who authorized it and what DOJ is doing to stop it."

The DOJ has said the AFSA accused the agency of "an indiscriminate purge" of documents "based on one out-of-context email."

"Plaintiffs have seriously misapprehended the facts. Trained USAID staff sorted and removed classified documents in order to clear the space formerly occupied by USAID for its new tenant," the DOJ wrote.

"The removed classified documents had nothing to do with this litigation. They were copies of documents from other agencies or derivatively classified documents, where the originally classified document is retained by another government agency and for which there is no need for USAID to retain a copy."

White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said the angst over the documents was unwarranted due the nature of the papers and their digital backups.

"The USAID building will soon be occupied by CBP," she posted on X, referencing U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

"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."

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