USAID employees told to burn or shred classified documents

The U.S. Agency for International Development is instructing its staff in Washington to shred and burn documents, according to an email obtained by NBC News. The move comes as President Donald Trump’s administration faces legal challenges over its attempt to shut down the federal agency.

The document destruction was set to take place Tuesday, according to an email from Erica Carr, the agency’s acting executive secretary. It is unclear how many people received the email, which thanked workers for their “assistance in clearing our 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,” Carr wrote.


Burning or shredding of classified material does happen during certain scenarios — including in emergency situations — but some former employees, as well as an organization representing foreign service workers, say that the current directive is inappropriate.

Groups challenging the administration's plans to shut down USAID filed an emergency motion Tuesday afternoon seeking to stop the document destruction.

"Defendants are, as this motion is being filed, destroying documents with potential pertinence to this litigation," the motion said.

"Although Plaintiffs do not know at this moment which records are being destroyed, the destruction of records may severely undermine the agency’s ability to function. For example, destruction of records that contain information about the agency’s operations may make it extraordinarily difficult— if not impossible—to recreate and rebuild agency programming" if their lawsuit is successful, the filing said.

The judge presiding over the case, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, did not immediately rule on the request. He ordered both sides to file a status report on the motion by Wednesday morning, along with a proposed schedule on how to proceed.

An administration official said three dozen people received the email, and the information to be destroyed was "courtesy content" — information or documents given to them as a courtesy by other agencies.

"No documents relevant to litigation are classified — therefore, they are not part of this directive. They are clearing out their building because it’ll be used by Customs and Border Patrol," the official siad.

"These are very old documents. They are in complete compliance with the Federal Records Act of 1950," they added. "Everyone involved in this process had a secret clearance or higher and was approved by the bureau of the documents that they were handling. A majority of the content is courtesy content. Most original copies are still in classified computer systems."

Harold Koh, a legal adviser for the State Department during President Barack Obama’s administration, said a directive to destroy classified information is not standard procedure, noting steps like this are instead typically taken when an embassy is under attack.

For the full read, visit NBC News.