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‘Sociopathic’: USAID Worker Sues Alleging State Dept. Medevac Refusal for Pregnant Wife
In a damning affidavit filled with harrowing details, a USAID career foreign service officer alleges that the Trump administration’s “rushed, haphazard, and cruel” effort to shut down the agency has placed their pregnant wife and unborn child in grave danger. Among the many risks cited, the officer claims the administration denied medically necessary medevac services, leaving them stranded in a country plagued by “routine political upheaval” and an “ongoing ethnic and religious insurgency.”
Since the Trump administration ordered what amounts to a possibly unlawful shutdown of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the employee, an overseas technical office deputy director, says “each day has brought a new constellation of suffering.”
“My wife is 31 weeks pregnant, after years of infertility and $50,000 of personal investment in countless fertility treatments across multiple tours, spanning three continents,” the USAID employee, identified only as “Terry Doe,” writes in the affidavit, part of a lawsuit by the American Foreign Service Association. AFSA says it is “challenging the unprecedented effort to dismantle” USAID.
“We have been overjoyed with this pregnancy but that joy has turned to turmoil, sadness, and dread. Because of the stress and strain of the constant onslaught by my employer in recent weeks, my wife has repeatedly been in the hospital with a life-threatening condition and stress-related complications,” the affidavit reads. “Because of these medical complications, she was told she needed to immediately evacuate because of a high risk of hemorrhage, which would be life-threatening to both my wife and our baby.”
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They say the “request for medical evacuation was denied twice by the State Department [in] Washington,” and were told that “there is no USAID funding for medevacs.” They charge, “this administration cruelly has taken the position that our lives are acceptable collateral damage for their political gain.”
In a particularly damning indictment, they write: “I later learned that there was a verbal directive from State Department Washington leadership to Regional Medical Officers and the Medical Evacuations Team to cease all USAID medical evacuations, hospitalization support, and guarantees of payment for urgent medical services.”
They do not identify who “State Department Washington leadership” is.
“Prior to this Administration, each of these services was provided to all Foreign Service Officers and their Eligible Family Members, in no small part because we serve in remote, austere, and unstable countries throughout the globe.”
And while they finally were able to get medevac approval thanks to intervention from an unnamed U.S. Senator, it was too late: “before my wife could be medically evacuated, on February 8th, my wife began hemorrhaging and had to be admitted to the hospital at our overseas post.”
It is no longer medically safe for her to get on a plane, they say, “even for a very short flight to better regional care and the three successive flights necessary to travel back to the US was simply a nonstarter.”
“Now I’m afraid for her and my baby’s health because of this rushed, haphazard and cruel push to shut down the agency. This didn’t have to happen. I don’t know how to explain to our daughter, who is living through all of this with me and my wife, that our own government is doing this to us,” they say.
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They also allege that there “has been constant uncertainty, constant changing directives, a full and abject failure to follow any of our pre-established processes and procedures,” they say, while also alleging some of the directives they have been given “often times may be illegal.”
“Jokes from administration political staff about us being federal flotsam continue,” they also write.
Politico’s Kyle Cheney, who posted screenshots and a link to the affidavit, calls it, “Another medical horror story in a court affidavit from a USAID employee stationed overseas.” He adds: “The employee, identified only as Terry Doe, says he’s been in touch with 25 other pregnant foreign service officers who are fearful their care will be cut off if the agency closes down completely on March 8.”
Others also responded.
“Read this story,” urged professor of law and former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance. “This isn’t pro-life. This is treating federal employees-people in government service like the enemy instead of the heroes they are. The people who villainized Hillary when one of our embassies was overrun are now victimizing our own people.”
U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride (D-DE) called it, “Absolutely horrifying from a ‘pro-life’ administration.”
New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof writes, “Elon Musk and Donald Trump have been brutalizing the families of American citizens working abroad for USAID, sometimes in dangerous and remote places. So remember that the Musk assault on USAID isn’t just killing foreigners but also threatens US citizens.”
Republican former U.S. Congresswoman Barbara Comstock blasted President Trump: “Horrifying story of what Trump’s unilateral mindless cutting off of USAID funds to families in remote areas means to one family – a serious and potentially deadly threat to the life of a pregnant mother and child. Outrageous and unconscionable.”
Democratic former U.S. Congressman Tom Malinowski, who served in the Obama administration as Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor in the Obama administration also weighed in.
“If you want to burn down part of the American government because all you know about it comes from crazy tweets, fine,” he wrote. “But don’t tell the Americans who signed up to serve that part of OUR government overseas that you won’t even pay to medevac them home in an emergency.”
Former USAID official Jeremy Konyndyk, now president of Refugees International, unleashed outrage at Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Elon Musk.
Secretary Rubio, Konyndyk wrote, “this is happening ON YOUR WATCH. Put a stop to this insanity already. Pete Marocco’s cruel recklessness is going to get US personnel killed.”
Marocco, according to The New York Times, is “the State Department official who took over the remains of U.S.A.I.D. and is now charged with reorienting a foreign aid mission to serve Mr. Trump’s agenda.”
“Shaking with anger after reading what Pete Marocco and Elon Musk are doing to patriotic @USAID workers who are serving their country abroad,” Konyndyk added. “Absolutely sociopathic.”
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Image via Reuters
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U.S. Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT) blasted a Fox News host for minimizing the potential lethal consequences to American service members that he says could have resulted from the Trump national security team’s use of Signal to plan out the recent bombing on Yemen. One of the participants of that chat was in Moscow, having visited with Russian President Putin, within hours of the 18-member chat.
Fox News host Will Cain chastised the Democrats’ anger and outrage over what is being called Signalgate, alleging it was “to score political points, the first political points they’ve been able to accomplish in two months.”
“Will,” Congressman Himes replied, “what we’re talking about here, and I’ve spent a decade now watching how our intelligence community communicates with the war fighter. So I am not going to listen to you tell me that this is about a ‘partisan advantage.'”
“It is a mistake, and yes, it’s a very serious mistake. Because if you make a mistake in Social Security and grandma doesn’t get a phone call through, that’s bad,” he said, highlighting the Trump administration’s reported targeting of the agency. “But there is not zero risk that our young men and women in uniform, the ones who flew those F-35s and F-18s—” he said before Cain cut him off.
READ MORE: ‘Putin Is Giddy’: NSA Knew Signal Was Vulnerable to Russian Hackers Before Security Breach
The Fox News host appeared to not understand how lives could have been put at risk—at one point calling it a mere “hypothetical”—and demanded Himes explain.
“Because in an insecure channel, in what was acknowledged as a mistake, before, whether it was a day or two hours or five hours, in a Signal chat that we know,” he said, “that the Russians could intercept, they might have told the Houthis in an hour, and in half an hour, they’re moving their anti-aircraft stuff around.”
“It is by the grace of God that we don’t have dead pilots or sunken ships right now,” Himes continued.
Cain claimed that the “mistake” was the accidental addition of The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg to the chat, when the larger crisis was holding what experts agree should have been a meeting in a SCIF—a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility—via Signal.
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“Including Jeffrey Goldberg was the mistake,” Cain insisted. “You are hyperbolically taking this over the top—yes, absolutely for partisan points.”
“You are the one who is making this into a partisan issue,” Himes continued, “and we are talking about the lives of our young men and women, and it makes me want to throw up to hear you turn this into a partisan issue when we are talking about the lives of airmen and Marines and sailors.”
Cain at that point began to break into laughter.
“You just need to stop this,” Himes insisted.
Watch the video below or at this link.
Wow — Jim Himes during a heated exchange with Will Cain on Fox News: “I’m not gonna listen to to you tell me that this about a partisan advantage … it is by the grace of God that we don’t have dead pilots of sunken ships right now … it makes me want to throw up to hear you… pic.twitter.com/PjNQPiiAM5
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 25, 2025
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The National Security Agency was reportedly aware of vulnerabilities in the messaging app Signal weeks before 18 top Trump administration national security and defense officials used the app in a group chat to plan the recent bombing of Yemen. Those vulnerabilities, an NSA memo warned, were being exploited by Russian hackers. Details have also emerged that at least two top administration officials who were in the chat were overseas, including one in Moscow — where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The use of the Signal app by the upper echelon of Donald Trump’s national security and defense team has rocked the nation, fueling concerns over the mishandling of sensitive—and potentially classified—information in ways that may be unlawful. These fears are seemingly compounded by Trump’s alleged mishandling of hundreds of classified documents, which led to criminal charges that were ultimately dropped after the U.S. Supreme Court granted presidents broad immunity from prosecution for official acts.
CBS News reports that the National Security Agency (NSA), an arm of the Pentagon, had “sent out an operational security special bulletin to its employees in February 2025 warning them of vulnerabilities in using the encrypted messaging application Signal.”
The NSA operates under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard.
The Pentagon also sent out a memo warning of Signal’s vulnerabilities and use by Russian hackers, just days after that group chat.
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“Several days after top national security officials accidentally included a reporter in a Signal chat about bombing the Houthi sites in Yemen, a Pentagon-wide advisory warned against using the messaging app, even for unclassified information,” NPR reported Tuesday.
“Russian professional hacking groups are employing the ‘linked devices’ features to spy on encrypted conversations,” the Pentagon’s memo warned.
It also notes that Google has identified Russian hacking groups who are “targeting Signal Messenger to spy on persons of interest.”
The Pentagon memo reminded users that “third-party messaging apps (e.g. Signal) are permitted by policy for unclassified accountability/recall exercises but are not approved to process or store non-public unclassified information.”
NPR’s Quil Lawrence noted that “NPR has seen DoD memo as far back as 2023 prohibiting mobile apps for discussing even much less sensitive info like ‘controlled unclassified information.'”
Last month, a Google Threat Intelligence memo warned of the use of apps like Signal by “military personnel, politicians, journalists, activists, and other at-risk communities.”
Critics argue that the use of Signal for “war plans” was against policy. During Tuesday’s Senate Intelligence Committee hearing CIA Director John Ratcliffe had insisted Signal was approved for use.
National security experts, including at least one former Trump administration official, have been highly critical of the use of the app by the 18-members in a chat.
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President Trump’s Ukraine and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff “was in Moscow, where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, when he was included in a group chat with more than a dozen other top administration officials — and inadvertently, one journalist — on the messaging app Signal,” CBS News reported on Tuesday. “Russia has repeatedly tried to compromise Signal, a popular commercial messaging platform that many were shocked to learn senior Trump administration officials had used to discuss sensitive military planning.”
Trump’s Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, acknowledged on Tuesday during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing that she was overseas during the Signal chat. The Associated Press reported the DNI “wouldn’t say whether she was using her personal or government-issued phone because the matter is under review by the White House National Security Council.”
The Wall Street Journal’s chief foreign-affairs correspondent Yaroslav Trofimov appears to be one of the first to note that Witkoff had been in Moscow during the time the chat had been organized. He notes: “The Signal app itself has high encryption. But if your phone is inside Russia, and especially if your WiFi and Bluetooth are not disabled, Russia can see what is inside your phone pretty easily.”
On Tuesday morning, U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) noted: “Not a single person out of 18 of the very most senior officials in this Admin — including the Director of National Intelligence and the CIA Director — voiced any concern with highly classified military plans circulated on Signal. You also can be sure this is not the only time.”
The Atlantic’s Dr. Norman Ornstein, a political scientist and scholar, responded to Congressman Goldman, writing: “Putin is giddy. He has compromised the phones of every top national security official in the Trump administration. No doubt has enough juicy information from what is likely to be multiple Signal chats to deeply damage American security. And possibly to blackmail some of them.”
RELATED: Trump Shrugs Off Signalgate, Backs Advisor at Center of National Security Scandal
Image via Reuters
Top Senate Democrats tore into the Directors of National Intelligence and the Central Intelligence Agency during a Tuesday hearing on global security threats, demanding answers after a bombshell report found they used an unsecured messaging app to plan a bombing in Yemen — possibly in violation of the law.
Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard refused to answer several questions from Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner (D-VA), including whether she participated in “the group chat with the Secretary of Defense and other Trump senior officials discussing the Yemen war plans.”
“Senator,” Gabbard replied, “I don’t want to get into the specifics,” a statement she made at least three times before the frustrated Vice Chair then asked: “Is this, is it because it’s all classified?”
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Gabbard would only say that the incident “is currently under review by the National Security Council.”
“Because it’s all classified?” Warner pressed. “If it’s not classified, share the texts now. Is it classified or non-classified?”
Tulsi Gabbard refuses to answer Warner’s questions about the Signal group chat pic.twitter.com/vMLfszfFMN
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 25, 2025
Gabbard ultimately told Warner that “there was no classified materials that was shared in that Signal chat.”
He immediately replied, “If there was no classified material, share it with the committee.”
“You can’t have it both ways. These are important jobs. This is our national security,” Warner said, as Gabbard remained silent and expressionless.
But several Senators appeared to be unconvinced or uncomfortable with her claim of no classified information in the Signal chat.
U.S. Senator Angus King (I-ME) told Gabbard that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth “put into this group text a detailed operation plan, including targets, the weapons we were going to be using, attack sequences and timing—and yet you’ve testified that nothing in that text, in that chain was classified.”
“Wouldn’t that be classified? What if that had been made public that morning before the attack took place?” he asked.
RELATED: Trump Shrugs Off Signalgate, Backs Advisor at Center of National Security Scandal
“Senator,” Gabbard replied, “I can attest to the fact that there were no classified or intelligence equities that were included in that chat group at any time,” she insisted.
“So the attack sequencing and timing and weapons and targets you don’t consider should have been classified?” King asked.
“I defer to the to Secretary of Defense and the National Security Council on that question,” Gabbard responded.
“Well,” King, appearing somewhat dumbfounded, reminded Gabbard, “you’re the head of the intelligence community and you’re supposed to know about classifications.”
“So your testimony very clearly today is that nothing was in that set of texts that were classified,” King continued, noting that “if that’s the case, please release that whole text stream so that the public can have a a view of what actually transpired on this on this discussion.”
“It’s hard for me to believe that targets and timing and weapons would not have been classified,” he concluded.
Angus King doesn’t buy Gabbard’s testimony that war plans ahead of military strikes isn’t actually classified information pic.twitter.com/wxywXSkPhc
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 25, 2025
U.S. Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) further pressed Gabbard on what Senator King had seemed to suggest might be potentially classified information.
“In the Signal chain, was there any mention of a target in Yemen?” he asked.
“I don’t remember mention of specific targets,” Gabbard replied.
“Any generic target?” Senator Kelly asked.
Gabbard, pausing, then replied, “I believe there was discussion around ‘targets,’ in general,” she said.
Earlier in the hearing, Vice Chair Warner had blasted the Trump national security officials who were using Signal, the unsecured messaging app, to map out the Yemen bombing.
“There’s plenty of declassified information that shows that our adversaries, China and Russia are trying to break in to encrypted systems like Signal,” the Vice Chair said. “I can just say this, if this was the case of the military officer or an intelligence officer, and they had this kind of behavior, they would be fired.”
“I think this is one more example of the kind of sloppy, careless, incompetent behavior, particularly towards classified information, that this is not a one off or a first time error,” he lamented.
Warner, with Gabbard and Ratcliffe sitting in front of him: “If this was the case of a military officer or an intelligence officer and they had this kind of behavior, they would be fired.” pic.twitter.com/Rn3AWtZbkq
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 25, 2025
Watch the videos above or at this link.
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Image via Reuters
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