A shocking revelation has emerged as USAID’s acting executive secretary, Erica Carr, issued an alarming directive to staff. The order demands the destruction of all remaining documents, including classified ones, igniting what will surely be a fierce national debate and legal confrontation.
According to Politico, the email from Carr instructed staff to gather at the agency’s former headquarters to proceed with the mass destruction of documents through shredding or burning. Carr emphasized the use of shredders first while reserving burn bags for when shredders are unavailable.
The directive included specific labeling instructions for the burn bags: “SECRET” and “USAID/B/IO/” in dark Sharpie, ensuring they are not overfilled and secured with staples. This unprecedented move indicates classified documents could potentially be destroyed.
A former USAID official confirmed the authenticity of the email, expressing bewilderment, “I’ve never seen something like this — en masse. Everyone with a safe is supposed to keep it up to date and destroy documents when they no longer need to be stored. Sometimes security will check your safe and tell you if you have to clean out old material.”
The situation has escalated as groups opposing the Trump administration’s closure of USAID have filed an emergency motion to halt the destruction. The filing warns, “Defendants are, as this motion is being filed, destroying documents with potential pertinence to this litigation.”
The motion further argues the destruction compromises the agency’s functionality, noting that, “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” should their lawsuit succeed.
As tensions rise, NBC News reports that U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, appointed by Trump, presides over the case, though he has yet to issue a ruling. All parties involved must file status reports and a schedule for the next steps by tomorrow morning.
