FILE PHOTO: Visitors walk up a stair during the opening of the restoration project at the historic Bimaristan Al-Muayyad Sheikh, one of the oldest hospitals following extensive renovations carried out in partnership between Egypt’s Tourism and Antiquities Ministry and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), ensuring sustainable management of historic sites at Souk al-Silah district in Old Cairo, Egypt August 18, 2024. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh/File Photo
Amr Abdallah Dalsh | Reuters
USAID’s director of security and his deputy were placed on administrative leave Saturday after trying to prevent employees from the Depart of Government Efficiency from accessing secure USAID systems, five sources familiar with the events told NBC News.
The USAID systems the DOGE team tried to access included personnel files and security systems including classified systems beyond the security level of at least some of the DOGE employees, according to three of the sources. The systems also included security clearance information for agency employees, two of the sources said.
“No classified material was accessed without proper security clearances,” Katie Miller, who worked in Trump’s first administration and has since joined DOGE, said in a post to X on Sunday.
When USAID Director of Security John Voorhees and his deputy Brian McGill refused to allow them in, the DOGE employees threatened to call the U.S. Marshalls, two of the sources said. The DOGE employees were eventually able to gain access to the secure systems, according to three of the sources, but it was not clear what information they were able to obtain.
This weekend, Elon Musk, the Trump empowered tech billionaire and co-head of DOGE, posted on X calling for USAID “to die” and accusing the independent agency, without offering evidence, of being a “criminal organization.”
Trump administration officials are actively discussing placing USAID under the authority of the State Department, according to more than a dozen current and former officials and sources familiar with the discussions, NBC News has previously reported, a move that Democrats and legal experts have argued would violate a law adopted by Congress establishing the agency.Â
The State Department, USAID and Musk didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
On Saturday, the website for the agency, USAID.gov, went dark and remained apparently offline as of Sunday evening, but a website for USAID off the homepage state.gov is active.Â
More than 1,000 USAID employees and contractors, including more than 300 people in the bureau of Global Health and 600 in the Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance, have already been fired or furloughed from the agency in the wake of the near-total freeze on U.S. global assistance implemented by the Trump administration just over a week ago.
In the latest slashes to staff, the majority of the 125-person Bureau for Legislative and Public Affairs was put on administrative leave late Saturday, according to three sources directly familiar with the actions, and several of the agency’s communications staff were blocked from accessing internal systems to communicate with staff this week, another source said.
“No one feels safe to go anywhere near the Ronald Reagan building,” one USAID official told NBC News. “We just had Elon Musk call us a criminal organization. Our security chief was escorted out. We know we are being surveilled by DOGE.”
