An administration official said that three dozen people received the email and that 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 said.
“These are very old documents. They are in complete compliance with the Federal Records Act of 1950,” the official 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.”
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Harold Koh, a legal adviser for the State Department during the Obama administration, said a directive to destroy classified information is not standard procedure, noting that such steps are instead typically taken when an embassy is under attack.
Outside of emergency scenarios, “the priority is preservation for later consultation and continuity of sound policy,” Koh said.
Mike Benz, concerned it was a move against the administration, was told it’s normal.
Update: Several good folks at USAID have reached out to me in the past hour and said the document destruction at USAID today is normal. But I still have several lingering, at least mildly severe concerns about deleting the paper record at a crisis time for the agency such as now pic.twitter.com/yXQo5oEgY0
— Mike Benz (@MikeBenzCyber) March 11, 2025
Original Story
A senior official at USAID instructed the agency’s remaining staff to convene at the agency’s now-former headquarters in Washington on Tuesday for an “all day” group effort to destroy documents stored there.
“Shred as many documents first, and reserve the burn bags for when the shredder becomes unavailable or needs a break,” the email said. 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 USAID building will be emptied. Customs and Border Protection will take over the building.
The State Department didn’t respond to a request for comment on the document purge.
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