Three groups this week filed lawsuits against the Trump administration over the U.S. Agency for International Development's (USAID) order to destroy some of its classified and personnel records.

The memo, sent by the agency's acting executive secretary, did not specify what documents and records would be targeted, but told employees to "shred" and "burn" the documents on Tuesday.

The lawsuits questioned whether it will impact the ability of the public to scrutinize the role the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) played at USAID, and concerned former USAID employees about their abilities to be rehired, per The Hill.

The American Foreign Service Association asked a judge for a restraining order that stopped the agency from burning anymore of its records, arguing it could impact ongoing litigation and interfere with its ability to retain evidence.

“This directive suggests a rapid destruction of agency records on a large scale that could not plausibly involve a reasoned assessment of the records retention obligations for the relevant documents under the [Federal Records Act] or in relation to this ongoing litigation,” attorneys for the association wrote.

The Justice Department (DOJ) has since agreed to pause the shredding, stating they would file a motion later Wednesday that includes information on “which documents were destroyed and not destroyed.”

The Personal Services Contractor Association also sued the administration and questioned who gave the order to destroy the documents. It also asked "how and why burning and shredding is consistent with preservation obligations in litigation, which documents are being destroyed and why, who authorized it and what DOJ is doing to stop it.”

Anna Kelly, a White House spokesperson, said that the documents have all been retained electronically.

“The USAID building will soon be occupied by [US Customs and Border Protection]” she wrote on the social platform X. “This was sent to roughly three dozen employees. The documents involved were old, mostly courtesy content (content from other agencies), and the originals still exist on classified computer systems.”

The third group, American Oversight, filed its lawsuit late Tuesday night where it claimed that the order to destroy records could violate the Freedom of Information Act, and Federal Records Act.

"Federal records at USAID — relating not just to the important work done by the agency over the past 60 years but to the gutting of the agency itself — are in danger of being lost to history by Defendants’ failure to comply with federal recordkeeping and disclosure laws," the group said.