USAID security leaders on leave after trying to keep Musk team from classified info, officials say
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WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has placed two top security chiefs at the U.S. Agency for International Development on leave after they refused to turn over classified material in restricted areas to Elon Musk’s government-inspection teams, a current and a former U.S. official told the Associated Press on Sunday.
Members of Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, called DOGE, eventually did gain access Saturday to the aid agency’s classified information, which includes intelligence reports, the former official said.
Musk’s crew lacked high enough security clearance to access that information, so the two USAID security officials — John Voorhees and deputy Brian McGill — were legally obligated to deny access.
The current and former U.S. officials had knowledge of the incident and spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to share the information.
The Department of Government Efficiency, run by Trump advisor and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, has gained access to sensitive Treasury data including Social Security and Medicare customer payment systems.
Musk on Sunday responded to a post about the news on X by saying, “USAID is a criminal organization. Time for it to die.” The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
DOGE carried out a similar operation at the Treasury Department, gaining access to sensitive information including the Social Security and Medicare customer payment systems.
Musk formed DOGE in cooperation with the new Trump administration with the stated goal of finding ways to fire federal workers, cut programs and slash federal regulations.
USAID, whose website vanished Saturday without explanation, has been one of the federal agencies most targeted by the Trump administration in an escalating crackdown on the federal government and many of its programs.
Rubio has to balance aggressive Trump policies with Latin America’s willingness to cooperate. The Panama Canal will be contentious.
The Trump administration and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have imposed an unprecedented freeze on foreign assistance that has shut down much of USAID’s humanitarian, development and security programs worldwide — compelling thousands of layoffs by aid organizations — and ordered furloughs and leaves that have gutted the agency’s leadership and staff in Washington.
The U.S. is by far the world’s largest donor of humanitarian aid, with USAID administering billions of dollars in humanitarian, development and security assistance in more than 100 countries. It spends less than 1% of its budget on foreign assistance, a smaller share overall than some other countries.
Allies are struggling to save part of their security funding from the 90-day freeze ordered by President Trump, who also paused federal grants and loans inside the U.S.
Peter Marocco, a returning political appointee from Trump’s first term, was a leader in enforcing the shutdown. USAID staffers say they believe that agency outsiders with visitors badges asking questions of employees inside Washington headquarters are members of Musk’s DOGE team.
Congressional Democrats have expressed concern that Trump may be headed toward ending USAID as an independent agency and absorbing it into the State Department. Democrats say Trump has no legal authority to eliminate a congressionally funded independent agency, and that the work of USAID is vital to national security.
President John F. Kennedy created the agency at the height of the Cold War to counter Soviet influence. USAID today is at the center of U.S. challenges to the growing influence of China, which has a successful “Belt and Road” foreign aid program of its own.
In a post on X, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said presidents cannot eliminate congressionally appropriated federal agencies by executive order, and said Trump was poised to “double down on a constitutional crisis.”
“That’s what a despot — who wants to steal the taxpayers’ money to enrich his billionaire cabal — does,” Murphy said.
Knickmeyer writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Matthew Lee in Panama City contributed to this report.
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