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.”
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.
Yeah! I trust them…
Totally trustworthy. They wouldn’t try to destroy evidence, would they?
People need some prison time.
With few exceptions, very few exceptions, Dems/leftists have much stronger drive to accomplish their goals than Republicans. Heck, much of the time Republicans have to waste precious time trying to convince rinos, aka, colleagues, of their contract with voters.
Yeah, of course, “SOMEBODY” should do “SOMETHING” about this, but, all things considered, for my one vote, I’d like to see “SOMEBODY” record this, in some way substantial, in order to capture the critical evidence … so as to nail the perpetrators and their enablers.
MAGA & MAHA!
It’s now well into March. There’s been no arrests of anyone connected to the 4.7 trillion in missing money. Where’s the FBI raid to collect evidence for crimes tied to the laundered money? Where’s the “conservative” Judges to stop usaid from destroying the evidence? Where’s the AG? Why have all of the criminals that we’ve already known about for over 30 years still walking free? Because of who they all work for. That’s why.
When in the hell are the Rino Eunuchs ever going to do anything??
Sick of the betrayal and disloyalty from the feckless cowards.
The RINOS will do something IF AND ONLY IF there is a good chance that they will lose their re-election bid … and not a moment before.
IOW: just like it was for our Founders and Framers, our GOVT — Federal, State, Local, etc — is ULTIMATELY up to We The People; the problem being that way too many of We The People are too ignorant and complacennt to uunderstand this; that way too many of We The People are too busy being SUBECTS instead of being CITIZENS.
Until a good solid majority of We The People — 60%-70% — come to understand these facts, and, then, collectively, embrace our patriotic duty, the RINOs will do very well continuing with the criminal things that they do; which, primarily, is getting wealthy leaching off the hard labor of the CITIZENRY.
[But, you already knew all this … right? Your question was rhetorical … right?]
MAGA & MAHA!
Attorney General Pam Bondi is missing in action. Meet the new boss……same as the old boss!
Can you imagine how many Secrets are in those Records? MAFIA STYLE CIA HITS … MURDERS … TOPPLING NATIONS … UKRAINE PROXY WAR? IF those documents get published it could start WW-3.
What is the US Marshalls office doing during this destruction of evidence?
Looking the other way?
It doesn’t seem to be a holdover initiating this.
NBC News reported that groups challenging the Trump administration’s efforts to shutter USAID have filed an emergency motion to stop this destruction immediately.
“Defendants are, as this motion is being filed, destroying documents with potential pertinence to this litigation,” the filing reads.
“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 motion adds.
No … They might find all the Recipts paid to Al Quadea and El SISI! Bad Press.
Imagine if people in the Trump administration were caught destroying documents, there would be an inquiry larger than the Russia Collusion one and there would be cities on fire by Antifa and various angry leftards.
It appears Republicans have DeBalled.
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