John —

We just wrote a letter to Marco Rubio who, in addition to being Secretary of State, is currently the Acting Archivist of the United States and Acting Administrator of USAID.

Yesterday news outlets reported on an email they obtained that was sent by the Acting Executive Secretary of USAID to agency staff, instructing them to “[s]hred as many documents first, and reserve the burn bags for when the shredder becomes unavailable or needs a break”.

You read that right: Donald Trump’s appointees told USAID staff to shred as many documents as possible, then begin burning them when the shredder “needs a break.”

The Federal Records Act has legal requirements for how USAID is supposed to preserve its records, and has strict limits on the circumstances under which they can be destroyed. The email obtained from the Acting Executive Secretary of USAID appears to show that these requirements are being violated.

John, under the law, the penalty for doing this can include fines or jail time.

That’s why we wrote a letter to Marco Rubio, the Acting Archivist of the United States, and those who work under him at NARA, asking them to instruct USAID to immediately cease destroying records, to preserve all federal records and to report any unlawful removal, alteration, or destruction of records to the National Archives and Records Administration.

Thank you,

CREW HQ