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WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal judges in two separate lawsuits refused Friday to order the Trump administration to not destroy U.S. Agency for International Development records after it said it has disposed of only old or unneeded documents and is no longer destroying records anyway.
Both cases involve the destruction of classified documents as part of the building cleanout as President Donald Trump dismantles USAID, cutting off most federal money and terminating 83% of humanitarian and development programs abroad. All but a few hundred staffers are being pulled off the job and the agency’s Washington headquarters is being shut down.
In one case, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, refused to issue a temporary restraining order after finding that records slated for shredding or burning are old and no longer needed and don’t appear to be related to the ongoing court battles over the near-dismantling of USAID.
In another case, Judge Tanya Chutkan, an appointee of President Barack Obama, pointed to declarations by Trump administration officials that the destruction of documents had stopped and wouldn’t resume without advance notice to the parties suing the Trump administration. In addition, a government attorney said in court that emails also aren’t being destroyed.
Chutkan directed the parties to try to work out an agreement on how USAID records should be handled for her to consider next week. She said a restraining order would be an “extraordinary measure.
“We’re not handing them out like candy,” she said.
The collection, retention and disposal of classified material and federal records are closely regulated by federal law. A union for USAID contractors had asked Nichols to intervene to stop the destruction of possible evidence after an email ordering staffers to help burn and shred agency records became public.
The Trump administration said the email had been taken out of context as trained USAID staff cleared out the agency’s building. The classified documents slated for destruction were largely copies of those held by other agencies or derived from other classified material, Erica Carr, acting executive secretary at USAID, said in a court document.
Any personnel records or those related to current classified programs are being retained, she said. She also pledged to contact the plaintiffs before any more documents are destroyed.
Carr’s statement also was filed with Chutkan in a lawsuit filed by a nonprofit government transparency advocacy group, American Oversight. The group filed multiple Freedom of Information Act requests with USAID in February.
In addition, the Trump administration filed a statement from USAID’s acting security director, also promising no destruction of records without notice, and one from the acting chief records officer for the National Archives and Records Administration, saying USAID’s actions are being investigated.
The classified documents at USAID emerged as an issue last month when the Trump administration put the agency’s top two security officials on leave after they refused to grant members of Elon Musk’s government-cutting teams access to classified material.
Chutkan acknowledged that “fast-moving events” mean critics of the Trump administration are “often rushing into court” to prevent what they see as irreparable harm. But she described the case before her as “a whole bunch of mushiness” from both sides.
“It does seem to me like this is something that’s reasonable people — and you appear to have reasonable people in my courtroom this particular Friday — could work out,” she told the attorneys.
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Hanna reported from Topeka, Kansas.
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