The U.S. Agency for International Development’s director of security and his deputy were placed on administrative leave Saturday after they tried to prevent employees from the Department 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 President Donald Trump's first administration and has since joined DOGE, said Sunday on X.
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. Marshals, 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.
Elon Musk, the Trump-empowered tech billionaire and head of DOGE, posted Sunday on X calling for USAID "to die" and accusing the independent agency, without offering evidence, of being a “criminal organization.”
Trump said on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews on Sunday that Musk "is doing a good job" and criticized USAID as "run by a bunch of radical lunatics."
"It’s been run by a bunch of radical lunatics, and we’re getting them out, USAID run by radical lunatics, and we’re getting them out, and then we’ll make a decision," he said.
Early Monday, Musk announced on his X social media platform that he and Trump were “shutting down” USAID, though the tech billionaire did not say what legal authority he believed the White House has to shut down a federal agency without congressional approval.
Democrats argued that DOGE's attempt to access USAID records was dangerous.
"Reports that individuals without appropriate clearance may have accessed classified USAID spaces as well as American citizens’ personal information are incredibly serious and unprecedented," Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., the ranking member the Foreign Relations Committee, wrote to NBC News. "We are seeking immediate answers about any implications for our national security and are bringing a group of bipartisan Senators together on this as soon as the Senate comes back tomorrow."
Democratic members of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations alleged in a Sunday letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio that “security guards present at the facility were threatened when they raised questions” about the DOGE workers seeking access.
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 reported, a move that Democratic lawmakers and legal experts have argued would violate a law adopted by Congress establishing the agency.
The State Department, USAID and Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
On Saturday, the website for the agency, USAID.gov, went dark and remained apparently offline Sunday evening, but a website for USAID off the homepage state.gov is active.
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 in the wake of the near-total freeze on U.S. global assistance the Trump administration implemented 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 members were blocked from accessing internal systems to communicate with staffers this week, another source said.
“No one feels safe to go anywhere near the Ronald Reagan Building,” where USAID is headquartered, a 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.”
