After refusing to hand over classified documents to teams from the Department of Government Efficiency, senior officials at the U.S. Agency for International Development were placed on administrative leave.
The Associated Press spoke to officials on Sunday who said that USAID members had been unsuccessful in their attempts to access classified information. DOGE teams, however, were able to gain access to intelligence reports and other classified material.
John Voorhees, along with his deputy Brian McGill, were the two employees who believed that they had a legal obligation to deny DOGE access because they did not have sufficient security clearance. NBC News reported that they refused to let the DOGE employees into their building and threatened to contact the U.S. Marshalls.
Elon Musk said in a Sunday post on X that DOGE is a criminal agency and “it’s time for it to die.”
Katie Miller, a former employee of President Trump’s Administration and who now works at DOGE, stated in another online post that no classified materials were accessed without “proper security clearances.”
In its vast changes to the federal administration, Trump’s administration has targeted USAID.
Last week, the Trump administration considered merging this organization with the State Department to reduce federal spending and cut the federal workforce.
USAID offers humanitarian aid to countries affected by conflict. The agency also helps to develop countries in a variety of other ways.
USAID had a budget of more than 50 billion dollars and it was founded in 1961.
