The US International Development Officials Agency was instructed this week to shred or burn sensitive documents.
According to emails obtained by PoliticsExecutive Director of USAID, Erica Kerr, on Tuesday told workers to destroy “classified safety and personnel documents” at the former Washington, D.C. headquarters of the agency, which is Ronald Reaganville's headquarters. Kerr called the directive a “all-day” event.
“More fake news hysteria!”
“Shredded many documents first and reserve a burn bag when the shredder becomes unavailable or when you need a break,” Carr's email reads. “If you need to use a combustion bag, don't burn it. Also make sure you can staple the combustion bag to the top.”
She instructed staff to use dark markers to label the burning bags “Secret” and “USAID/B/IO/” referring to “business or independent offices.”
Her newsletter did not point out the reasons for the document's destruction, but it announced massive cuts to agencies shortly after the Trump administration. Earlier this week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio shared that the White House has cancelled 5,200 (83%) of its USAID contracts.
Politico said most of the agency's staff were fired or took administrative leave. In late February, it surfaced that an email had been sent to staff, and it was roughly revealed. 2,000 workers It is affected by layoffs.
Customs and border protection will take over the previous headquarters of USAID.
White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly responded to concerns about Kerr's orders.
“This was sent to about 30 employees. The documents involved are old and mostly polite content (content from other agencies), and the original still exists in the classified computer system,” she wrote. post x.
“More fake news hysteria!” declared Kelly.
The union representing the USAID contractors' workers has requested that federal judges move to stop the document from being destroyed. Associated Press It has been reported.
US Ministry of Foreign Affairs It is listed The document concerns that “it could be related to ongoing lawsuits regarding the termination of USAID employees and the suspension of USAID grants.”
The State Department did not respond to Associated Press' request for comment.
Hans von Spakovsky, Senior Legal Fellow, Heritage Foundation; I insisted A USAID worker “has committed a felony less than 18 USC 1519 in destroying the GOV document.” He called for all staff involved to be “criminally charged,” and said, “particularly. [the] Acting Director of USAID. ”
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