By Brendan Pierson
(Reuters) – An official at the U.S. Agency for International Development has ordered employees to shred a large volume of records, according to a court filing on Tuesday by government employee unions asking a judge to block the move.
In a motion filed in Washington, D.C., federal court, the unions cited an email from USAID’s acting executive secretary Erica Carr instructing employees to come to the agency’s office on Tuesday for “clearing 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 unions said the directive “suggests a rapid destruction of agency records on a large scale” that both violates federal record-keeping law and could destroy evidence in their case.
The lawsuit was brought by the American Federation of Government Employees and American Foreign Service Association, which represent government employees, as well as by anti-poverty organization Oxfam America.
They allege that President Donald Trump’s administration has acted illegally by halting most of USAID’s operations and firing or placing on leave most of its staff.
U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, last month allowed the administration to go forward with its plan to put more than 2,000 employees on leave.
In response to Tuesday’s motion, the judge ordered both sides to submit a status report by Wednesday morning proposing a schedule for briefs on the motion and noting any disagreements between them.
(Reporting by Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler and Nia Williams)
Comments