USAID’s director of security and his deputy were placed on administrative leave Saturday after trying to prevent employees from the Depart 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 Trump’s first administration and has since joined DOGE, said in a post to X on Sunday.
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. Marshalls, 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.
This weekend, Elon Musk, the Trump empowered tech billionaire and co-head of DOGE, posted on X calling for USAID “to die” and accusing the independent agency, without offering evidence, of being a “criminal organization.”
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 previously reported, a move that Democrats and legal experts have argued would violate a law adopted by Congress establishing the agency.
