Jeremy Lewin, a 28-year-old associated with the Department of Government Efficiency, reportedly gutted USAID and liquidated all 60 of the agency’s overseas missions while failing to complete the legal paperwork required to be an official government employee, WIRED reports.
Internal emails indicate that during the three-week window between March 18 and April 4, 2025, when Lewin was actively terminating thousands of staff and canceling aid programs, he had not signed the necessary documents to join the agency.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio placed Lewin in a top leadership role at USAID on March 18, 2025. Despite this, HR records reveal that by March 26, Lewin had not accepted a job offer or filed the standard OF-306 background screening form. Without these, federal agencies cannot legally finalize an appointment. An HR executive noted on March 31 that Lewin had not finished the tasks needed to initiate the security reciprocity process, which recognizes a security clearance transfer between agencies.
The situation reportedly led to significant confusion within the agency
USAID security was reportedly unable to issue Lewin an ID card because their database had no record of him as an employee. Natalia Machuca, who spent 15 years at the agency, noted that without being in the system, an individual cannot gain access to computers or even walk around the building. One longtime HR executive described Lewin as an administrative ghost.
Lewin tells a different story. He states that he was a regular government employee with a valid security clearance held by the State Department during this time. He claims that USAID HR was confused about the paperwork for a few days, but the issue was cleared up once they were made aware of his dual appointment. He provided documents dated March 18, 2025, including an appointment affidavit signed by Rubio. However, a top HR executive claims no one from their office saw any delegation documents until late April 2025.
Legal experts point out that this creates a massive accountability problem. Don Moynihan, a public policy professor at the University of Michigan, suggests, “This creates a huge accountability problem if you have these actors who are making really consequential life-or-death decisions who didn’t go through any standard confirmation process, or in this case didn’t even complete their paperwork to become a formal employee.”
David A. Super, a law professor at Georgetown University, notes that federal law is designed to prevent someone walking off the street from being given such enormous powers: “You can’t just walk in the door of a federal agency and become an employee.” He argues that Lewin failing to complete his onboarding is much more than an administrative slip-up.
The appointment itself utilized 22 U.S.C. § 2385(b), a provision typically reserved for rapidly deploying emergency-response staff to disaster zones. One former senior USAID official called this a “legal contortion, “noting that the provision was created for scaling up quickly during emergencies. While Brian Feinstein, a law professor at the Wharton School of Business, believes the appointment appears to be legal despite its unconventional nature, others argue it was an attempt to bypass the Federal Vacancies Reform Act.
This controversy is part of a larger legal battle. In February 2025, employees sued over the role of DOGE affiliates in federal workforce reductions. Although a court granted an emergency stay that allowed Lewin to proceed with mass firings on March 28, the litigation continues.
Attorney Kevin Byrnes, who represents over 170 staff members, suggests that Lewin’s failure to complete mandatory onboarding could expose him to personal liability. The court has since ordered the government to hand over internal documents as the case moves forward.
Published: Oct 27, 2026 07:00 pm