The Trump administration has given itself the moniker The Most Transparent Administration in History.

So it seems like a transparent attempt at destroying evidence, which I guess counts for something.

The shred and burn initiative may violate federal law.

A protester outside of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) headquarters holds a sign with an anti-DOGE message

A protester outside of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) headquarters holds a sign with an anti-DOGE message© Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

USAID isnt alone in its apparent efforts to obfuscate access to documents.

That might be changingor at least, it should be.

Just how willfully DOGE will go along with this is yet to be seen.

Screenshot of email to USAID employees instructing them to burn records.

© Eoin Higgins

Government agencies certainly have ways of skirting requests with denials, redactions, and foot-dragging.

But legally, it seems DOGE does have to complya thing a transparent administration should welcome, right?

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President Donald Trump and billionaire oligarch Elon Musk at UFC 314 at the Kaseya Center on Saturday, April 12, 2025, in downtown Miami.

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Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, April 10, 2025.

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Donald Trump and Elon Musk speak in the Oval Office before departing the White House on his way to his South Florida home in Mar-a-Lago in Florida on March 14, 2025.

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U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media during a guided tour of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts before leading a board meeting on March 17, 2025 in Washington, DC.

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