USAID staffers are instructed to stay out of the agency’s Washington headquarters

USAID staffers ordered out

Photo: AP

FILE - USAID humanitarian aid destined for Venezuela is displayed for the media at a warehouse next to the Tienditas International Bridge on the outskirts of Cucuta, Colombia, Feb. 19, 2019. 

Staffers of the U.S. Agency for International Development were instructed to stay out of the agency’s Washington headquarters on Monday, according to a notice distributed to them, after billionaire Elon Musk announced President Donald Trump had agreed with him to shut the agency.

USAID staffers said they tracked 600 employees who reported being locked out of the agency’s computer systems overnight. Those still in the system received emails in the agency system saying that “at the direction of Agency leadership” the headquarters building “will be closed to Agency personnel on Monday, Feb. 3.”

The developments come after Musk, who's leading an extraordinary civilian review of the federal government with the Republican president's agreement, said early Monday that he had spoken with Trump about the six-decade U.S. aid and development agency and “he agreed we should shut it down.”