American Oversight Files for Emergency Restraining Order Against Marco Rubio to Stop Destruction of Public Records at USAID

On Wednesday, American Oversight filed a motion for a temporary restraining order against Secretary Marco Rubio — in his capacity as acting U.S. Agency for International Development administrator and acting archivist — to immediately halt the further destruction or deletion of critical documents at the agency and ensure the preservation of all records, including those essential for accountability. The motion follows Tuesday’s urgent lawsuit against USAID, the National Archives and Records Administration, and Rubio for violating a slew of transparency laws by destroying government records.

The agency’s directive to “shred as many documents first, and reserve the burn bags for when the shredder becomes unavailable or needs a break” constitutes a flagrant violation of the Federal Records Act (FRA) and blatantly disregards legal requirements for record preservation. Anticipating the potential unlawful destruction or removal of government records after USAID’s website was pulled down last month, American Oversight sent letters to Rubio and the archivist urging them to take action to recover unlawfully removed records and prevent any further destruction, as required by the FRA. American Oversight also submitted Freedom of Information Act requests to USAID seeking records related to the administration’s efforts to dismantle the agency.

On Tuesday, American Oversight alerted Rubio to USAID’s document-shredding and demanded he take immediate action to halt the ongoing destruction of records, prevent further destruction, and recover any records that were unlawfully removed.

“The directive to destroy records is a flagrant and brazen abuse of power and cannot go unchallenged,” said American Oversight interim Executive Director Chioma Chukwu. “We urge the court to swiftly act to preserve whatever remains of USAID’s records and to compel the federal government to restore all destroyed and deleted documents. This restraining order is necessary to stop the bleeding and force this administration to meet its most basic legal obligations. But we know this is just one battle in a larger war being waged by the Trump administration on transparency, accountability, and the rule of law. American Oversight will continue to aggressively investigate the onslaught of illegal actions, attacks on civil servants, and removal of critical government services — because we refuse to let acting Administrator Rubio, President Trump, or Elon Musk dismantle our democracy without repercussion.”

Last month, American Oversight launched an investigation into Trump’s shutdown of USAID. American Oversight filed multiple FOIA requests, demanding any communication from USAID that would shed light on all efforts to dismantle the agency. The FOIA requests also seek to uncover any communication between USAID officials and the White House, Congress, or Secretary Rubio.