The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has instructed its staff in Washington to shred and burn documents, according to an internal email.
The destruction was set to take place Tuesday, according to an email from Erica Carr, the agency’s acting executive secretary. It remains unclear how many employees received the directive, 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.
The directive comes as the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA), alongside Oxfam America and other government employee unions, filed a motion Monday to block the Trump administration from shutting down USAID. A second motion was filed Tuesday seeking to halt the destruction of records. AFSA said it is monitoring the situation and urged USAID leadership to “provide immediate clarity on this directive.”
U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, who is presiding over the case, did not immediately rule on the request. He ordered both sides to submit a status report by Wednesday morning, along with a proposed schedule on how to proceed.
The Trump administration has aggressively targeted USAID, slashing the agency’s workforce and removing signage from its headquarters in February. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced in a post to X on Monday that his department was “officially cancelling 83% of the programs at USAID.”
