A USAID directive to destroy classified documents had been “seriously wrong”, Trump administration lawyers wrote in a judicial presentation on Wednesday in which they insisted that all records were properly handled and “did not violate” federal laws that dictated the preservation of government documents.
The US Government Employee Federation, a union that is demanding the Trump administration for its cuts to the Federal Labor Force, asked a federal judge on Tuesday night to intervene and prevent the agency from “destroying documents with potential pertinence to this litigation” after a senior USAID official issued an orientation issued by USAID personnel who ordered the destruction of the classified records in Your Washington, DC, the headquarters, the headquarters as Usaid leaves its office space.
The orientation urged officials to “crush so many documents first” and “reserve burns bags for when the crusher is not available or needs a break,” according to a copy of the message obtained by ABC News.
The lawyers of the Department of Justice wrote on Wednesday that “USAID trained personnel ordered and eliminated classified documents to clear the space previously occupied by USAID for their new tenant.”
“They were copies of documents from other agencies or documents classified in a derivative manner, where the document originally classified is retained by another government agency and for which there is no need for Useid to retain a copy,” wrote the lawyers of the Department of Justice.
The Trump administration lawyers affirmed that “the qualified documents deleted had nothing to do with” the American Federation of Government employees.
Norah McCormick sings in support of USAID employees, on February 28, 2025, during a USAID manifestation in Washington.
Jacquelyn Martin/AP
The Trump administration lawyers explained that the office space that previously belonged to the USAID “is in the process of being dismantled and prepared for the new tenant,” as ABC News reported on Tuesday, and the records had to retire from their safes to leave space for their new tenants, customs and border protection of the United States.
Erica Carr, the USAID official who sent the memorandum ordering the destruction of the documents, wrote in a affidavit that “34 USAID employees, all with secret or higher authorization, eliminated obsolete and not necessary documents in the classified safes and the compartmentalized sensitive information facilities.”
Carr added that most records destined for destruction remain in burns bags at the agency’s headquarters “where they remain intact.” She said the documents would not be destroyed until the judge intervenes.
