THE WASHINGTON POST: USAID security officials on leave after refusing access to Musk allies

The Trump administration has removed two top security officials at the US Agency for International Development after they refused to let representatives of Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” access restricted spaces at the agency on Saturday, said current and former USAID officials.

The placement of the security officials - John Voorhees and his deputy - on administrative leave is the latest effort by the Trump administration and Mr Musk to wrest control of the world’s largest provider of food assistance, which they have denigrated without offering evidence as left-wing and corrupt amid objections from Democratic and Republican lawmakers.

Amid the turmoil at the agency, Matt Hopson, the USAID chief of staff and a political appointee, resigned, according to a current and former USAID official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive situation. Mr Hopson did not respond to requests for comment.

Mr Voorhees was put on leave after he did not allow DOGE officials to access a sensitive compartmented information facility - commonly known as a “SCIF” - an ultra-secure room where officials and government contractors take extraordinary precautions to review highly classified information, according to three current and former USAID officials.

A group of about eight DOGE officials entered the USAID building Saturday and demanded access to every door and floor, despite only a few of them having security clearance, according to senior Senate Democratic staff members who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the incident.

When USAID personnel attempted to block access to some areas, DOGE officials threatened to call federal marshals, one of the Democratic aides said. The DOGE officials were eventually given access to “secure spaces” including the security office.

Katie Miller, a spokeswoman for DOGE, said on X that “no classified material was accessed without proper security clearances.”

The Senate Democratic staffer also said top officials from USAID’s office and the bulk of the staff in USAID’s Bureau for Legislative and Public Affairs were put on leave later Saturday. Some of them were not notified but had their access to agency terminals suspended.

On Sunday, Mr Musk repeatedly attacked USAID on X, calling the long-standing government agency “evil” and a “viper’s nest of radical-left marxists who hate America.”

“USAID is a criminal organization,” he added. “Time for it to die.”

Established in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy, USAID oversees a vast portfolio of programs designed to provide humanitarian relief, combat poverty, support global health and more. In 2023, it managed appropriations worth $US40 billion ($65b), according to the Congressional Research Service. USAID is present in more than 100 countries from Ukraine to Peru. The agency’s staff numbers more than 10,000, the majority of whom are overseas.

By Sunday afternoon, USAID’s X account had been taken down, with a message saying the account “doesn’t exist.” The agency’s Instagram account was also taken offline.

USAID’s website has been down since Saturday. It was not immediately clear whether it was taken down because of the Trump administration’s focus on the agency or was down because of technical problems.

The news of the top two security officials being put on leave was earlier reported by CNN.

Top-ranking Democrats on Sunday demanded explanations for the DOGE officials’ actions and the sudden departure of the USAID security leaders.

Senator for Hampshire Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told The Washington Post that she is “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.”

“Reports that individuals without appropriate clearance may have accessed classified USAID spaces as well as American citizens’ personal information are incredibly serious and unprecedented,” Senator Shaheen said.

Fellow Democrat Senator Tim Kaine (Virginia), who sits on the same committee, said there is “no circumstance under which individuals without proper security clearances should be given access to our nation’s most sensitive secrets and systems.”

“This is exactly what China, Russia and Iran want,” Senator Kaine said. “This potentially criminal incident must be investigated thoroughly and immediately. I commend the efforts of USAID staff who have shown time and again that their first and foremost priority is serving their country, not the whims of an unelected and corrupt billionaire.”

President Donald Trump named Mr Musk, the world’s richest man, as the head of DOGE, a new government office that was initially promised to comb through the whole federal bureaucracy searching for deep cuts. In the days since Trump took office, Musk has sought to exert sweeping control over the inner workings of the US government, installing longtime surrogates at several agencies, including the Office of Personnel Management, which essentially handles federal human resources, and the General Services Administration, which manages real estate.

DOGE is now housed in a White House office formerly known as the US Digital Service but now called the US DOGE Service and has broad visibility into technology across the government.

The administration’s move to push out the top security officials at USAID comes a day after Musk’s DOGE deputies gained access to a sensitive Treasury Department system responsible for trillions of dollars in US government payments after the administration ousted a top career official at the department, according to three people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe government deliberations.

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