In Washington, on Friday, two federal judges chose not to mandate the Trump administration to halt the destruction of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) records in the context of two separate lawsuits. The administration assured that only outdated or unnecessary documents were being disposed of and insisted that such activities had ceased entirely.
These cases revolve around the disposal of sensitive documents amid the dismantling of USAID as directed by President Donald Trump. This restructuring includes severe budget cuts, leading to the elimination of 83% of international aid programs and the reduction of the agency’s workforce, with most Washington headquarters operations being shuttered.
In one case, District Judge Carl Nichols, appointed by Trump, opted not to invoke a temporary restraining order. He determined that the documents destined for destruction were no longer needed and were unrelated to the ongoing disputes surrounding USAID’s downsizing.
In a separate case, Judge Tanya Chutkan, appointed by former President Barack Obama, noted the Trump administration’s assurances that document destruction had ceased and would not move forward without prior notification to the parties involved in the suit. A government attorney also confirmed in court that emails were not being destroyed.
Chutkan encouraged the parties to negotiate a resolution on how the records should be managed and indicated that any restrictive judicial measures would be considered extraordinary. “We’re not handing them out like candy,” she remarked.
Federal law mandates strict procedures for handling classified materials and federal records. A union representing USAID contractors sought intervention from Nichols to prevent potential destruction of evidence after a controversial email surfaced, instructing staff to incinerate and shred documents.
The Trump administration clarified that this email was misunderstood and asserted that the staff was only executing routine building clearouts. The records in question were reportedly duplicates of documents maintained by other agencies or materials accumulations from other classified data, explained Erica Carr, USAID’s acting executive secretary, in a court document. Carr emphasized that essential personnel records and those tied to active classified projects are being preserved.
Carr’s statement was also included in a lawsuit initiated by the nonprofit, American Oversight, which urges government transparency. The group had issued several Freedom of Information Act requests to USAID earlier in the year.
Furthermore, the administration presented statements from USAID’s acting security director, affirming the cessation of records destruction without notice, and from the acting chief records officer of the National Archives and Records Administration, confirming an investigation into USAID’s actions.
This issue emerged when two senior USAID security officials were suspended after resisting requests from government reform teams led by Elon Musk, who sought access to classified information.
Chutkan acknowledged the rapid developments prompting critics to seek swift legal remedies to prevent potential irreversible consequences. However, she depicted the case as convoluted, implying that it could be resolved amicably. “It does seem to me like this is something that reasonable people — and you appear to have reasonable people in my courtroom this particular Friday — could work out,” she stated to the attorneys involved.
