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Death of Kentucky teen sparks investigation into possible sextortion scheme

March 13, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(GLASGOW, Ky.) — Eli Heacock was like many 16-year-olds.

The Glasgow, Kentucky, teenager enjoyed playing tennis, telling “dad jokes” and spending time with his father, who his mom said was “his best friend.”

“He was our tornado. He kept us on our toes all the time,” said his mother, Shannon Heacock.

But everything changed in an instant after Eli Heacock died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on Feb. 28, his mom told ABC News.

Since his death, his mom said local and federal investigators have said they believe Eli Heacock may have been targeted in an alleged sextortion scheme.

“Eli was on a good track. We had no reason to believe there was an issue at all. We knew nothing about sextortion or how it works,” Eli Heacock’s father, John Burnett, told ABC News.

Sextortion is a term “used to describe a crime in which an offender coerces a minor to create and send sexually explicit images or video,” according to the FBI. Once the offender receives the explicit content from the child, they then threaten to release the compromising content “unless the victim produces additional explicit material,” the FBI said on its website.

One type of sextortion is “financially motivated sextortion,” which follows a similar pattern, but is motivated by the goal of financial gain, not sexual gratification, the FBI said. After receiving explicit material, the offender will threaten to release the content unless a payment is made, the FBI said.

Financial sextortion has resulted “in an alarming number of deaths by suicide,” the FBI said on its website.

But, the explicit pictures do not need to be taken by the child to qualify as sextortion, Burnett said. In his son’s case, he said the offender made AI-generated images of Eli Heacock, sent them to the teenager and demanded $3,000 or else the pictures would be released or his family would be harmed.

“Their intention was to convince Eli their sincerity that they could, in fact, harm him or someone he loved with pictures that they generated,” Burnett told ABC News.

His mother said she regularly checked her son’s phone, but the interaction occurred during the night and the situation must have “put him in panic mode.”

In the text messages she saw, her son sent a portion of money to the offender, to which the anonymous user replied, “This is not enough.”

Eli Heacock’s twin sister discovered her brother’s body, ran to her parents and said “Eli was hurt,” Shannon Heacock said.

The 16-year-old was rushed to the hospital, but succumbed to his injuries on Feb. 28, his mother said.

“How can your lives change that fast over merely $3,000 someone wanted off the internet from a kid? I play a lot of ‘What if I did this? What if I did that?’ We don’t need anybody to add to our guilt because we carry it very heavily right now,” Shannon Heacock told ABC News.

Upon arriving at the hospital, a local FBI detective reviewed Eli Heacock’s phone, recognized it as a potential sextortion case and put the teenager’s phone on airplane mode, his mother said.

The investigation into Eli Heacock’s death is still in its beginning stages, his father said, with both local detectives and federal investigators reviewing the contents of the 16-year-old’s phone.

The family has also been in contact with Rep. Steve Riley, a lawmaker in the Kentucky House of Representatives, who has championed a bill in the Kentucky legislature making sextortion a felony and establishing penalties for those convicted of the crime. The bill is now on its way to Gov. Andy Beshear to be signed into law, Shannon Heacock said.

The Heacocks are not the only family mourning the loss of a loved one after a sextortion scheme. In 2023 alone, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children received 26,718 reports of financial sextortion — up from 10,731 reports in 2022.

Shannon Heacock urges parents to check their children’s phones at all times because, in her experience, “even the happiest child is hiding something.”

“It’s no longer to be scared of the white van that drives around, you have to be scared of the internet,” Shannon Heacock said.

If you or someone you know are experiencing suicidal, substance use or other mental health crises please call or text 988. You will reach a trained crisis counselor for free, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can also go to 988lifeline.org.

Pope spends 12th anniversary as head of Catholic church in hospital as recovery continues

March 13, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(ROME) — Pope Francis has begun his 28th consecutive day in hospital on the 12th anniversary of when he was elected pope in 2013 following five ballots in a papal conclave.

While no events are planned to mark the pontiff’s 12 years as head of the Catholic church, it is a public holiday in the Vatican, as it is each year, to mark the anniversary.

Pope Francis’ condition remained “stationary” on Wednesday, with tests confirming his improvement, according to the Vatican.

A chest X-ray performed on Tuesday confirmed improvements recorded over the past few days, the Holy See, the Vatican’s press office, said in its Wednesday evening update.

The pope continues to undergo high-flow oxygen therapy during the day and “noninvasive mechanical ventilation during his night rest,” the Vatican said.

Pope Francis’ prognosis was “lifted” on Monday, meaning he is no longer in imminent danger, but the clinical picture remains complex.

The 88-year-old pontiff will continue “for additional days, the pharmacological medical therapy in a hospital environment” due to the “complexity of the clinical picture and the significant infectious picture presented at hospitalization,” the Vatican said.

Francis’ doctors said there are positive signs of the pontiff’s recovery, but caution remains, according to Vatican sources, after he was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli Hospital on Feb. 14 and was diagnosed with bilateral pneumonia.

Swatting call about possible armed person at San Bernardino hospital sparks massive police presence

March 13, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(LOS ANGELES) — Reports of a possibly armed person at a San Bernardino, California, hospital sparked a massive law enforcement response Wednesday evening, but authorities later cleared the scene and said it appeared to be the result of a “swatting” call.

The incident began unfolding at the Loma Linda University Hospital Center in the San Bernardino area, east of Los Angeles, around 6:15 p.m. local time.

The Bernardo County Sheriff’s Office said in an post on X it was aware of “reports of a possible armed individual” at the hospital and said deputies were on scene and working to clear the facility.

Police and fire department vehicles surrounded the facility and news helicopters hovered nearby.

About two hours later, authorities said the scene had been cleared.

No shots were fired.

“There are no reported injuries, and the incident appears to be a swatting call,” the sheriff’s office said.

A swatting call refers to an intentional false report to authorities intending to cause a large law enforcement presence.

Fired Education Department worker: ‘We got the sense that we were disposable.’

March 13, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Joe Murphy, whose position as a management and data analyst was eliminated when the Department of Education laid off nearly 50% of its workforce Tuesday evening, said on Wednesday that he and his colleagues are filled with a sense of “sadness” and “disbelief.”

“We got the sense that we were disposable in a certain sense, especially those of us in the data space,” he told ABC News.

According to Murphy, everyone he worked with directly had their positions terminated.

The 56-year-old from Dumfries, Virginia, said he has spent almost 20 years in education data, previously working for the National Center for Education Statistics, in addition to serving as a contractor for a formula grant data collection space in the Education Department.

In the Department of Government Efficiency’s latest efforts to cut federal costs, some 1,315 Education Department employees were affected by the “reduction in force” notices, leaving 2,183, according to senior officials at the agency.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the job cuts on Wednesday, referring to them as “a promise made and a promise kept.”

“There is no reason that we should be spending more than most developed countries in the world. And our education system is failing,” she added. “The president wants to return education back to the states, empower those closest to the people to make these very important decisions for our children’s lives. And this is a first step in that process.”

Though Murphy said the terminations were expected, he said the experience has still been disconcerting.

“Nothing surprises me anymore, but it’s still kind of shocking and impactful,” he said.

“I do not know where I go forward from here … I am suddenly belched out into a job market that has been at the very same time, severely constricted and also completely flooded with people who have a similar skill set to mine. I’m 56 years old,” Murphy continued, adding that he has spend “more than a third of [his] entire life” in this line of work.

“Felt really weird to wake up this morning and be like, wow, what am I gonna do?” he said.

Murphy emphasized how the most important and rewarding aspect of his job, which falls under the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, was serving the nation’s children.

“It’s really for the kids, and what we do is for the kids. And so many of us feel that way,” he said, adding that he “wish[es] things went differently.”

“That’s the thing I have the greatest sense of pride in. I would think, you know, doing a good job and getting the data to the programs in the right timely fashion — good, accurate data, so that they can make decisions on behalf of, you know, 100,000 schools in this country and 18,000 districts and 50-something state education agencies,” he explained.

When asked if he believes children will continue to receive needed educational benefits and services, Murphy projected a bleak outlook and expressed his belief that “we’re politicizing the department of education and the education of our students.”

He also expressed concern over whether his work will even be able to continue.

“So, all that work that we did for the programs, I don’t know who’s going to do it now or be able to do it. The folks in the programs were already overwhelmed. They were so grateful to us for the work that we did for them in distilling down this massive amount of data to a few answers with groundwork that they laid together with us,” he said. “So, I don’t know where that’s going to get done.”

Murphy is a member of the American Federation of Government Employees union, which he says he joined only recently due to the change in administrations from Biden to Trump.

“When it seemed to be going south and everybody was taking over after the inauguration, I said, okay, well, I’m gonna go ahead and sign up,” he said, explaining how he was affected by the “last two months of being led by threats and intimidation.”

“I don’t necessarily disagree with the idea that the federal government needed some improvements and some restructuring to some degree,” Murphy acknowledged. “But how you do it really matters, and you can’t just … the federal government is not a private business, and you can’t run it that way.”

High school runner who hit opponent in head with baton faces assault and battery charge

March 13, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — A high school track athlete faces a misdemeanor charge of assault and battery after a now-viral video showed her hitting a competitor’s head with her baton during a relay event.

Alaila Everett, a senior at I.C. Norcom High School in Portsmouth, was running the second leg of the 4×200-meter relay when her baton struck Kaelen Tucker, a junior from Brookville High School, in the head. It happened March 4 during the Virginia State High School League Championships at Liberty University in Lynchburg.

Bethany Harrison, the commonwealth’s attorney for the city of Lynchburg, confirmed to ABC News on Wednesday that a misdemeanor charge of assault and battery was issued against Everett in the matter.

Additional details on the case were not immediately available.

Video of the incident showed Tucker staggering and reaching for her head after being hit before going off the track. She dropped her baton and was attended to by medical personnel shortly after the incident. She would later be diagnosed with a concussion, she told ABC affiliate WVEC in Hampton, Virginia.

“I was so in disbelief,” Tucker told WVEC. “I didn’t know what happened.”

Everett contended that baton strike was an accident in an interview that aired Tuesday on “Good Morning America.”

“I would never do that on purpose,” Everett said. “That’s not in my character.”

The 18-year-old said that during the race, her arm became stuck, and her baton inadvertently struck Tucker as they neared the corner of the track.

“Her arm was literally hitting the baton — until she got a little ahead, and my arm got stuck like this,” she said while holding a baton to emphasize the movement.

The Everetts say they believe their video shows that Tucker’s proximity to their daughter led to an accidental collision. According to the family, Tucker was running too close to Everett when she tried to cut ahead, which caused Everett to lose her balance and the baton to make contact with Tucker.

Following the incident, the athletic director at I.C. Norcom High School and Everett’s father apologized to the Tucker family in a phone call, according to Tucker’s parents.

The Virginia High School League told ABC News on Monday that it is reviewing the incident.

“The VHSL membership has always made it a priority to provide student-athletes with a safe environment for competition,” the league said in a statement.

The Portsmouth NAACP said it is also reviewing the incident as well as “racial slurs and death threats” toward the Everett family.

“We are committed collectively to ensuring that the criminal justice system, which we feel is not warranted in this situation, is executed fairly and based on due process,” the organization said in a statement on Wednesday while calling for Everett to be “void of any criminal proceedings.”

“From all accounts, she is an exceptional young leader and scholar whose athletic talent has been well-documented and recognized across our state,” the Portsmouth NAACP said. “She has carried herself with integrity both on and off the field and any narrative that adjudicates her guilty of any criminal activity is a violation of her due process rights.”

ABC News’ Victoria Arancio contributed to this report.

Trump’s White House Tesla showcase for Musk raises ethics concerns

March 13, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s controversial showcase of Tesla cars in front of the White House has set off alarms around Washington over what some see as an infomercial for the billionaire’s car company on high-profile government property.

Ethics experts ABC News spoke with are raising concerns that the Tuesday event could blur or even cross the lines of what’s considered proper conduct by elected officials.

“It could be reasonably assumed by some that the White House and the president’s endorsement is up for sale,” William F. Hall, an adjunct professor of political science at Webster University, said Wednesday.

The event happened hours after Trump posted he was going to buy a Tesla following the company’s mass protests and a major decline in stock value and sales across the world. When reporters asked Trump about the optics of the event, he didn’t deny that he was doing it to help Musk’s bottom line.

“I think he’s been treated very unfairly by a very small group of people. And I just want people to know that he can’t be penalized for being a patriot. And he’s a great patriot, and he’s also done an incredible job with Tesla,” he told reporters, adding that Musk hadn’t asked him for anything. Musk later thanked Trump on X.

Hall, who previously served in the Justice Department as a field director during the Reagan, Bush and Clinton administrations, said it is not uncommon for presidents to lend support to American companies but that it’s usually done outside of the White House at other locations such as at a factory or an office space.

“As the elected leader of our nation, I think it would not be at all difficult for the average American who might have viewed that to reasonably interpret that he was endorsing this product,” he said.

Delaney Marsco, Director of Ethics for the Campaign Legal Center, a non-profit legal group, told ABC News that ethics laws primarily focus on executive employees serving under the president but not on the president himself.

She said that was because lawmakers who wrote those rules did not anticipate any president disregarding longstanding standards of what’s expected and acceptable.

“One of the things we have relied on in ethics norms are the norms about what is right. President Trump doesn’t abide by those norms,” she said.

Marsco added that Musk’s vaguely-defined role as a presidential adviser, as well as his being the CEO of tech companies that do business with the government, also raised serious concerns given Tuesday’s event. She noted she expected that Musk’s behavior wasn’t being questioned just on the political front.

“I’m sure shareholders are concerned about this line being blurred, and it’s equally confusing for the public,” she said.

Tesla’s stock dived over the last couple of weeks but saw a slight increase after Trump checked out Musk’s vehicles at the White House. Hall noted that Tesla and Musk have been on the receiving end of protests due to his actions and words since he got more involved with Trump.

The president claimed he was going to write a check for one of the cars full price and provide it for the White House staff, however, it was not clear as of Wednesday evening if that actually happened.

The ethics experts warned that the move may set an unprecedented standard for future presidents, one that diminishes the objectivity of the executive branch.

“The federal government isn’t in the business of endorsing products to buy. The federal government is supposed to be making policy decisions that better the lives of the American public not making endorsements of the president’s friends or the president’s donors,” Marso said.

Marsco added that there is nothing stopping Trump or future presidents from making these unethical decisions, however, those ethics laws governing the executive branch can be strengthened by lawmakers, especially if there is outcry from the public.

“When you start talking about ethics some people don’t understand the ethic laws and what they entail … but the public isn’t stupid,” she said. “They know what a conflict of interest is and what the government is supposed to do for them. The public knows this is not the right use of the office of a president, to endorse a product that is a friend and a major political donor.”`

SpaceX mission to bring home Starliner astronauts postponed due to hydraulic issue

March 13, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — SpaceX postponed a mission on Wednesday to bring the next crew set to work on the International Space Station (ISS) and begin the return of a pair of astronauts back to Earth.

The launch’s postponement was announced on Wednesday evening ahead of what would have been the scheduled launch time.

There was an issue with the hydraulic system on the launch side. It is a ground issue with the launch tower and not a problem with the spacecraft, according to SpaceX.

SpaceX said it’s now targeting a launch on Friday at 7:03 p.m. ET.

Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams have been in space since June 2024 after they performed the first crewed test flight of Boeing’s Starliner. When they launched, they were only supposed to be on the ISS for about a week.

However, NASA and Boeing officials decided to send the uncrewed Starliner back to Earth in September after several issues and keep Wilmore and Williams onboard until early 2025 when Crew-10 was ready to launch on the Dragon spacecraft. Wilmore and Williams are set to return in the Crew-9 capsule.

The pair integrated with the ongoing Crew-9 mission aboard the ISS and could not return to Earth until Crew-9 completed its six-month mission and were replaced by Crew-10.

Wilmore and Williams assisted the crew with research and other responsibilities. However, NASA officials said the pair were using up more supplies meant for the ISS crew.

Steve Stich, program manager for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said that NASA teams spent all summer looking over the data on Starliner and felt there was too much risk with regard to the vehicle’s thrusters.

During a press conference in September, Wilmore said he and Williams did not feel let down by anything during the mission.

“Let down? Absolutely not,” Wilmore said. “It’s never entered my mind. It’s a fair question. I can tell you, I thought a lot about this press conference … and what I wanted to say and convey.”

“NASA does a great job of making a lot of things look easy,” he said, adding, “That’s just the way it goes. sometimes because we are pushing the edges of the envelope in everything that we do.”

If the mission is successful, it’s unclear when exactly Wilmore and Williams will return to Earth on Crew-9.

The crew consists of two NASA astronauts, an astronaut from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and an astronaut from Russia’s Roscosmos.

SpaceX will share a live webcast of the mission beginning one hour and 20 minutes prior to liftoff on its website and on its X account. NASA will also air coverage on its X account.

“During their time on the orbiting laboratory, the crew will conduct new research to prepare for human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit and to benefit humanity on Earth,” SpaceX said on its website.

SpaceX’s contracted missions are part of the larger Commercial Crew Program at NASA, which are certified to perform routine missions to and from the ISS.

NOAA braces for mass layoffs, fueling concerns about lifesaving weather services

March 12, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(SILVER SPRING, Md.) — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is preparing to lay off more than 1,000 workers as part of the Trump administration’s mandate for agencies to prepare “reductions in force,” according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.

The cuts are fueling concerns that NOAA’s ability to deliver lifesaving services, such as weather forecasting, storm warnings, climate monitoring and fishery oversight, will be hampered. The concerns are especially acute as hurricane and disaster season looms.

NOAA was “already significantly understaffed, so this is devastating. This is beyond a s—show,” Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Ca., the ranking member on the House Natural Resources Committee, said in an interview with ABC News. “It means we’re going to be less safe. It means there will be all sorts of collateral damage.”

A person familiar with staffing levels at NOAA told ABC News that the agency is already down about 2,000 people since January as a result of the first round of the Trump administration’s cuts, the “Fork in the Road” offer and regular retirements. In January, this source said, staffing was at about 12,000 employees, which is described as average. With an additional 1,000 cuts looming, the agency would be down 25% since the start of the year.

“There is no way to absorb cuts of this magnitude without cutting into these core missions,” Huffman said. “This is not about efficiency and it’s certainly not about waste, fraud and abuse. This is taking programs that people depend on to save lives and emasculating them.”

NOAA’s reduction in force plan is currently in the Department of Commerce and is due to be delivered to the Office of Management and Budget this week, sources familiar said. It’s unclear when exactly the resulting cuts will be announced, but sources said it could be as early as Friday.

“NOAA was required to submit their cut plan today, and they were asked to eliminate entire functions, not just individual personnel. The number of terminations is more than 1,000, and that is on top of the probationary folks who’ve already been let go,” Huffman said. “Our ability to forecast flood conditions and tornadoes is reduced, and in a matter of days, it’s going to be significantly reduced, as we head into fire season, which is almost all year round now in the West.

“Our ability to forecast red flag weather conditions for wildfires is significantly reduced,” he added. “Literally, the people that run these systems are being terminated. The people that run these offices where these programs do this critical work are being terminated.”

Between the already announced and looming cuts, plus the funding battle that could reduce the agency’s budget, a source familiar said NOAA “could be at a breaking point,” adding that amid all the talks of reducing costs, taxpayers only pay 6 cents per day for all of the services provided by the agency.

“More importantly, the services provided by NOAA wouldn’t be as robust or functional — or maybe even exist at all,” the source said.

Schumer says Democrats will block GOP funding bill, heightening shutdown alert

March 12, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday that Senate Democrats will not provide the votes to pass the House-approved deal to fund the government, heightening the alert for a potential government shutdown at the end of the week.

If a deal isn’t struck to bring over some Democratic support, the government will shut down at the end of the day Friday.

Two days is a long time on Capitol Hill, so there is still plenty of time for a deal to emerge, but Schumer’s statement certainly heats up shutdown fears.

Schumer pointed the finger at Republicans for leaving Democrats out of the funding negotiations.

“Funding the government should be a bipartisan effort, but Republicans chose a partisan path drafting their continuing resolution without any input any input from congressional Democrats,” Schumer said on the floor Wednesday.

Unlike in the House, where Republicans can act unilaterally to pass legislation, the Senate needs Democrats to pass a funding bill.

At least 60 votes are needed for a funding bill to clear key procedural votes, called cloture votes, which means at least seven Democrats would be needed to pass any funding bill through the Senate.

Schumer made clear on Wednesday that right now, Democrats won’t provide those votes.

“Republicans do not have the votes in the Senate to invoke cloture on the House CR,” Schumer said.

For several days, Democrats have been grappling behind the scenes about whether to furnish the requisite votes to pass the funding bill approved by House Republicans Tuesday. On the one hand, many Democrats say this bill gives President Donald Trump and Elon Musk unilateral power to continue slashing the federal government. On the other, some Democrats understand that a decision to vote against the bill could likely force an undesirable government shut down.

After days of closed-door meetings and tight-lipped interaction with the press, Schumer said Democrats will instead advocate for a 30-day clean stopgap bill meant to buy more time for appropriators to complete full-year funding bills.

“Our caucus is unified on a clean April 11 CR that will keep the government open and give Congress time to negotiate bipartisan legislation that can pass,” Schumer said.

Just because that’s what Democrats want, doesn’t mean it’s a vote Democrats will get.

They are the minority in the Senate, and they do not have control over what bills are brought to the Senate floor for a vote. There’s nothing that Democrats can do to force a vote in the Senate on a 30-day clean stopgap measure, but they may be able to wheel and deal with Republicans to get a vote on it.

With Schumer saying that Democrats are not ready to proceed, the Democrats hold the cards. If they do not furnish the votes to clear this procedural hurdle and get on to the bill, things could be at a stand still, and a shut down could be on the horizon.

Meanwhile, House Democrats are urging their Senate colleagues to vote no on the funding bill they almost unanimously opposed when it passed through the House on Tuesday evening.

“House Democrats are very clear. We’re asking Senate Democrats to vote ‘no’ on this continuing resolution, which is not clean, and it makes cuts across the board,” said Vice Chair Ted Lieu, flanked by five other members of House leadership at a press conference at the Issues Conference at the Lansdowne Resort. Lieu’s comments came before Schumer pushed for a 30-day clean stopgap bill.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said that conversations are “continuing” with Schumer all the way down to rank-and-file Democratic members about keeping the Democratic caucus united against the bill.

“The House Democratic position is crystal clear as evidenced by the strong vote of opposition that we took yesterday on the House floor opposing the Trump-Musk-Johnson reckless Republican spending bill,” Jeffries said.

Late Wednesday, Democratic House leaders called on House Republicans to return from recess to Washington to “immediately” take up a short-term measure that would fund the government through April 11.

ABC News’ Isabella Murray contributed to this report.

Trump administration says handling of USAID documents ‘did not violate’ federal laws

March 12, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — A USAID directive to destroy classified documents had been “seriously misapprehended,” Trump administration attorneys wrote in a court filing Wednesday in which they insisted that all records were appropriately handled and “did not violate” federal laws dictating the preservation of government documents.

The American Federation of Government Employees, a union that is suing the Trump administration over its cuts to the federal workforce, asked a federal judge late Tuesday to intervene and prevent the agency from “destroying documents with potential pertinence to this litigation” after a senior USAID official issued guidance to USAID staff ordering the destruction of classified records at its Washington, D.C., headquarters as USAID clears out of its office space.

The guidance urged officials to “shred as many documents first” and to “reserve the burn bags for when the shredder becomes unavailable or needs a break,” according to a copy of the message obtained by ABC News.

Justice Department attorneys wrote Wednesday that “trained USAID staff sorted and removed classified documents in order to clear the space formerly occupied by USAID for its new tenant.”

“They were copies of documents from other agencies or derivatively classified documents, where the originally classified document is retained by another government agency and for which there is no need for USAID to retain a copy,” DOJ attorneys wrote.

Trump administration attorneys asserted that “the removed classified documents had nothing to do with” the American Federation of Government Employees’ litigation.

The Trump administration attorneys explained that office space formerly belonging to USAID “is in the process of being decommissioned and prepared for the new tenant,” as ABC News reported Tuesday, and the records needed to be removed from their safes to make room for its new tenants, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Erica Carr, the USAID official who sent the memo ordering the destruction of the documents, wrote in a sworn declaration that “34 employees of USAID, all holding Secret-level or higher clearance, removed outdated and no longer needed derivatively classified documents in classified safes and sensitive compartmentalized information facilities.”

Carr added that most of the records earmarked for destruction remain in burn bags at the agency’s headquarters “where they remain untouched.” She said the documents would not be destroyed until the judge weighs in.

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