Newsletter: Ongoing USAID Fallout

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President Trump’s administration’s overhaul of the federal government and the gutting of foreign aid programs has continued at full speed, having terminated more than 90 percent of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s contracts, ending humanitarian aid efforts worldwide and effectively laying off thousands of employees.

Two weeks ago, American Oversight launched an investigation into Trump’s illegal dismantling of USAID, filing a dozen Freedom of Information Act requests for records that could shed light on the influences behind the decimation — including that of unelected billionaire Elon Musk.

Both Trump and Musk, who is “overseeing” the “Department of Government Efficiency” (a position that has been confusing and unclear for weeks now) have promoted misinformation about the agency’s work and funding.
This week, the Trump administration placed more than 4,500 USAID employees on administrative leave and fired another 1,600, and permanently terminated funding for about 5,800 USAID programs around the world.
Thousands of former USAID employees who worked in Washington, D.C., were given 15-minute time slots to gather personal belongings from the office this week, escorted by federal officers.
The canceled programs include HIV testing and treatment projects, centers that fought malnourishment, shelters for women who experienced rape or domestic violence, and many other foreign aid projects, including one that provided polio immunizations for millions of children.
A federal judge had ordered the Trump administration to release about $1.5 billion for foreign aid work already completed on behalf of USAID by this Wednesday, but Supreme Court Chief Justice John Robert temporarily blocked that ruling the same day.

Contract termination letters sent to NGOs across the globe this week stated that Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who in early February was announced as acting director of USAID, and another agency official had “determined your award is not aligned with Agency priorities and made a determination that continuing this program is not in the national interests,” the Associated Press reported.

In our investigation into the illegal dismantling of USAID, we’ve filed multiple requests for records and communications between agency officials and the White House, Congress, or Rubio.
Earlier this month, we sent letters warning USAID, the National Archives, and the State Department that any destruction or removal of USAID records was in violation of the Federal Records Act, and demanding the agencies take action to recover the agency’s records and prevent further destruction.
This week, we sent a letter to the National Archives and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau regarding the potential unlawful destruction of records. The letter comes after a former senior official warned that there is “imminent risk that twelve years’ of critical CFPB records, which belong to the public, will be irretrievably lost and cause serious and sweeping damage.”

On the Records

DOJ Official’s Ties to Election Denialism

Former West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner, a 2020 election denier who supported states’ exits from the nonpartisan Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), is currently in charge of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. Records we’ve obtained shed light on Warner’s close ties to right-wing “election integrity” activists as they waged a campaign against ERIC, a nonpartisan voter-list maintenance system.

The records shed light on the influence Warner had on other states to withdraw from ERIC. In March 2023, days after West Virginia and Florida announced their decisions to leave ERIC, Virginia’s commissioner of elections Susan Beals was invited to join an “Election Integrity Leaders” call with Warner and Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd.
Warner emailed Beals days after Virginia withdrew from ERIC that May: “Susan, first congratulations on your departure from Eric. I’ve got another situation I’d like to run by you when you have a moment,” he wrote, asking for her personal contact information.

The records also shed light on the extent to which, with ERIC out of the picture, Warner’s office was working with Cleta Mitchell — a lawyer involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 election results — and her Election Integrity Network.

“You made reference last week to some databases that your office and clerks used in your efforts to clean voter rolls,” Mitchell emailed Warner’s general counsel in May 2023. She asked to be forwarded the databases for a “National Working Group on Voter Rolls.”
That month, Warner appeared at a webinar hosted by EIN and the Virginia Fair Elections Coalition where he discussed “what WV is doing to clean their voter rolls in their post-ERIC world,” the records show.

Justice Department Appointments

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division is responsible for upholding federal anti-discrimination laws and often deals with related voting rights issues. Warner has expressed sympathy for false claims about widespread voter fraud — claims that have been used to justify new restrictions to voting rights.

Warner is filling the role while Trump’s nominee to lead the division, Harmeet Dhillon, awaits Senate confirmation.
Dhillon, who has long worked as a personal lawyer for Trump, also supported his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and has a long history of advocating against efforts to address racial inequalities and LGBTQ+ and reproductive rights.
During hearings this week, Dhillon deflected questions about whether the president could ignore orders from the Supreme Court.

Trump’s nominee for solicitor general, former Missouri Solicitor General D. John Sauer, also refused to directly answer those questions during confirmation hearings this week. “It’s hard to make a very blanket, sweeping statement about something without being presented with the facts and the law,” he told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.

Sauer has also been a longtime personal lawyer for Trump, notably representing him in the Supreme Court case that ultimately granted Trump wide immunity from prosecution. American Oversight submitted an amicus brief in that case in late 2023.
Records we previously obtained also shed light on Sauer’s involvement in circulating an amicus brief signed by 17 state attorneys general in support of Texas v. Pennsylvania, the December 2020 lawsuit from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton seeking to overturn the election results in several swing states.

Newsletter: Ongoing USAID Fallout

On the Records

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