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Jeremy Lewin Dogebag

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JOHN OLIVER 3 26

KID KILLER CHOLERA

OP ED LARRY TRIBE ON CLIMATE? BC HELPS TESLA EV?

Trump officials were told that cutting aid to South Sudan would exacerbate a deadly cholera epidemic. They did so anyway.

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rubio terror bs

Speaking at the summit, Rubio vowed that further new terrorist designations for left-wing groups would be coming “soon.”

DOGEBAG

Jeremy Lewin, the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Assistance, linked last week’s political terrorism summit to today’s Cuba report, saying on X: “For seven decades, the Cuban regime has been behind both the ideological underpinnings of third worldism and subversive organizing structures of the new radical left political terrorists that @SecRubio called out with clarity last week.”

But virtually all the summit could do to substantiate the supposed scourge of political terrorism was to focus on groups that are almost comically dated — like the 70’s era Symbionese Liberation Army or the Weather Underground. The summit was vague about what are the equivalent groups today.

Today’s Cuba report, however, “names names,” in an obvious attempt to stigmatize American citizens who are very much politically active today.

In some cases these are even sitting politicians, from congresswoman Maxine Waters to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.

...

4TH CIRCUIT

QUATTLEBAUM, Circuit Judge: Before us is a petition for writ of mandamus filed by Elon Musk, United States DOGE Service, Department of Government Efficiency, United States Department of State, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Marco Rubio, Peter Marocco, Jeremy Lewin, Kenneth Jackson and Amy Gleason. At issue is the district court’s order denying petitioners’ motion for a protective order to prevent the depositions of Musk, Marocco and Lewin.1

....Mandamus relief is a drastic and extraordinary remedy reserved for extraordinary cases. See Cheney v. U.S. Dist. Ct. for D.C., 542 U.S. 367, 380 (2004). The party seeking mandamus must show a clear and indisputable right to the relief sought and that there are no other means of obtaining relief. See id. at 380–81. And the court must, in its discretion, “be satisfied that the writ is appropriate under the circumstances.” Id. at 381. To depose Musk, Marocco and Lewin, as high-ranking government officials, plaintiffs must show extraordinary circumstances. See Franklin Sav. Ass’n v. Ryan, 922 F.2d 209 (4th Cir. 1991); In re McCarthy, 636 F. App’x 142 (4th Cir. 2015).3 That’s

...

The district court determined that plaintiffs met their burden of showing of extraordinary circumstances by establishing that there is “no alternative” for plaintiffs to obtain the information sought other than the depositions

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sought. Nor do they dispute petitioners’ claim that plaintiffs have not taken depositions under Rule 30(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Deposing high-ranking officials is a measure of last, not first, resort. Second, even if petitioners’ discovery responses are inadequate—a decision we do not address here—the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure contain remedies for inadequacies. For example, they permit motions to compel appropriate responses and sanctions for noncompliance. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 37. In sum, the district court abused its discretion in holding that plaintiffs have no alternative to deposing Musk, Marocco and Lewin when the options available under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure have not been pursued.

For these reasons, we grant the petition for mandamus relief and direct that the district court grant petitioners’ motion for a protective order at this time. But our decision does not mean that the depositions of Musk, Marocco and Lewin are barred for the remainder of these proceedings. It just means that plaintiffs have not shown extraordinary circumstances based on the record before us. Entered at the direction of Judge Quattlebaum with the concurrence of Judge Niemeyer. Judge Gregory filed a dissenting opinion. ...

DISSENT

It is profoundly ordinary that subcabinet officials and former subcabinet officials sit for depositions. In two cases where this Circuit has considered similar questions, we granted one writ of mandamus precluding a deposition of the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, at that point a Cabinet official, but we permitted the

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Defendants do not even attempt to suggest adequate substitutes for their depositions. They provide the names of no other officials who would be better placed to answer plaintiffs’ questions, aside from the four officials whom plaintiffs already deposed. Petition for Writ of Mandamus at 30. But as plaintiffs indicated, and the district court agreed, the discovery process so far has failed to provide evidence addressing “certain key decisions, including the decision to shut down USAID headquarters and to shut down the USAID website.” Does v. Musk, 2026 WL 295364 at *3 (D. Md. Feb. 4, 2026). Accepting the findings of the district court, defendants’ halfhearted attempt to propose a substitute is inadequate. III. My colleagues in the majority encourage the plaintiffs to pursue other discovery avenues before requesting to depose these particular defendants. A

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Given the inadequate discovery responses by defendants thus far, I am deeply concerned that granting this writ of mandamus frustrates justice by broadly immunizing government officials who have historically been subject to depositions. I am encouraged by the majority’s indication that this order does not close the door on future depositions of 13 these defendants. But given the defendants’ failures to make the extraordinary showings required for a writ of mandamus, I would deny the petition today.

261160R1.U

3? 26

DEVEX

DOGE staffer takes over at the State Department's office of foreign aid

Jeremy Lewin takes the role from Peter Marocco, who was seemingly ousted over the weekend.

By Elissa Miolene // 16 April 2025

Jeremy Lewin — a 28-year-old tech entrepreneur with no government experience — has just added another title to résumé: acting director of the State Department’s Office of Foreign Assistance.

It’s one of several roles Lewin has taken on since President Donald Trump returned to the White House. First, he joined the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, the budget-slashing office run by billionaire and Trump ally Elon Musk. Then, he became instrumental in the dissolution of the U.S. Agency for International Development. And in March, Lewin became both the agency’s chief operating officer and deputy administrator for policy and programs, holding one of the top seats at the same agency he sought to dismantle.

Lewin was at USAID for a month before he got promoted to the State Department, the agency that has since subsumed what’s left of USAID’s operations. Lewin took over the role days after Peter Marocco, former director of the department’s Office of Foreign Assistance, was seemingly ousted over the weekend — and in the midst of a budget back-and-forth that may leave the State Department with....

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GGL 3 26

Including results for *JEREMY*** LEWIN USAID DOGE MAROCCO

[### DOGE staffer takes over at the State Department's office of ... Devex

https://www.devex.com › news › doge-staffer-takes-over...](https://www.devex.com/news/doge-staffer-takes-over-at-the-state-department-s-office-of-foreign-aid-109867)

Apr 16, 2025 — Jeremy Lewin takes the role from Peter Marocco, who was seemingly ousted over the weekend. By Elissa Miolene // 16 April 2025 ...Read more

Missing: JEREMEY ‎| Show results with: JEREMEY

[### DOGE associate is made acting head of foreign assistance ...

AP News

https://apnews.com › article › trump-foreign-aid-musk-...](https://apnews.com/article/trump-foreign-aid-musk-doge-lewin-373442292067b2070243daf8041e1668)

Apr 15, 2025 — Lewin's appointment follows the departure of a Trump political appointee, Pete Marocco, as the administration's head of foreign assistance.Read more

[### Trump appointee Pete Marocco hands control of USAID to ...

CBS News

https://www.cbsnews.com › Politics](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/usaid-pete-marocco-doge-official-jeremy-lewin/)

Mar 19, 2025 — According to the Associated Press, Lewin has worked on the DOGE cost-slashing efforts led by Elon Musk at USAID and other federal agencies.Read more

Missing: JEREMEY ‎| Show results with: JEREMEY

[### Jeremy P. Lewin

U.S. Department of State (.gov)

https://www.state.gov › biographies › jeremy-p-lewin](https://www.state.gov/biographies/jeremy-p-lewin)

Jul 11, 2025 — Jeremy P. Lewin. Senior Official Under Secretary for Foreign Assistance, Humanitarian Affairs, and Religious Freedom. July 11, 2025 - Present.Read more

Missing: MAROCCO ‎| Show results with: MAROCCO

[### DOGE official taking leadership role at USAID, email ...

PBS

https://www.pbs.org › newshour › politics › doge-offici...](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/doge-official-taking-leadership-role-at-usaid-email-obtained-by-ap-says)

Mar 19, 2025 — Marocco wrote that Secretary of State Marco Rubio will "effective immediately" designate Jeremy Lewin as deputy administrator for policy and ...Read more

Missing: JEREMEY ‎| Show results with: JEREMEY

[### Two Officials Who Helped Dismantle U.S. Aid Agency Are ...

The New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com › U.S. › Politics](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/19/us/politics/usaid-doge-leadership.html)

Mar 19, 2025 — Those officials are Jeremy Lewin, who has been working for the ... Marocco's tumultuous tenure at U.S.A.I.D. was marked by drastic cuts ...Read more

Missing: JEREMEY ‎| Show results with: JEREMEY

[### 1 FILED: March 4, 2026 AMENDED

Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals (.gov)

https://www.ca4.uscourts.gov › opinions](https://www.ca4.uscourts.gov/opinions/261160R1.U.pdf)

PDF

5 days ago — United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Marco Rubio, Peter. Marocco, Jeremy Lewin, Kenneth Jackson and Amy Gleason. At ...Read more

13 pages

[### Elon Musk's 28-year-old DOGE lieutenant dismantled ...

Fortune

https://fortune.com › 2025/04/15 › state-department-do...](https://fortune.com/2025/04/15/state-department-doge-elon-musk-marco-rubio-usaid-jeremy-lewin/)

Apr 15, 2025 — A senior U.S. official confirmed the new job for Jeremy Lewin, an associate of the DOGE earlier appointed to help finish dismantling USAID.

[### In mid-February, Jeremy Lewin, a DOGE team member ...

X · JasonLeopold

90+ likes · 12 months ago](https://x.com/JasonLeopold/status/1899230432266277264)

Jeremy Lewin, a DOGE team member who became Pete Marocco's chief of staff at the State Department, helped lead a review that saw him seek daily approval from ...Read more

Missing: JEREMEY ‎| Show results with: JEREMEY

[### Two more stories about State/AID Budget and Marocco/ ... USAID ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

https://usaidalumni.org › uploads › 2025/04 › Tw...](https://usaidalumni.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Two-more-stories-about-State-AID-Budget-and-Marocco-Lewin-Roles.-By-Anna-Gawel-Devex-Newswire-16-Apr-2025.pdf)

PDF

Apr 16, 2025 — First, he joined the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. Then he became instrumental in the dissolution of USAID. And in March, Lewin ...Read more

2 pages

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REF

MANY LG PIC

NO LNX

Trump Officials Celebrated With Cake After Slashing Aid. Then People Died of Cholera.

by Anna Maria Barry-Jester and Brett Murphy, photography by Peter DiCampo

:{:{December 15, 2025,}:

Series:The End of Aid: Trump Destroyed USAID. What Happens Now?

More in this series

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published.

This story is the first in a three-part series on the deadly fallout from U.S. foreign aid cuts in Africa.

Reporting Highlights

Early Warnings: Trump officials were told that cutting aid to South Sudan would exacerbate a deadly cholera epidemic. They did so anyway.

Aid Charade: Even as lifesaving programs closed in South Sudan, Rubio and other officials maintained they were still active and that no one had died. We found that wasn’t true.

A Surging Outbreak: After the funding cuts, cases in South Sudan spiked. It’s the worst cholera epidemic in the country’s history.

These highlights were written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.

On the one-month anniversary of President Donald Trump’s inauguration earlier this year, a group of his appointed aides gathered to celebrate.

For four weeks, they had been working overtime to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development, freezing thousands of programs, including ones that provided food, water and medicine around the world. They’d culled USAID’s staff and abandoned its former headquarters in the stately Ronald Reagan Building, shunting the remnants of the agency to what was once an overflow space in a glass-walled commercial office above Nordstrom Rack and a bank.

There, the crew of newly minted political figures told the office manager to create a moat of 90 empty desks around them so no one could hear them talk. They ignored questions and advice from career staff with decades of experience in the field.

Despite the steps to insulate themselves, dire warnings poured in from diplomats and government experts around the world. The cuts would cost countless lives, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the other Trump officials were told repeatedly. The team of aides pressed on, galvanized by two men who did little to hide their disdain for the agency: first Peter Marocco, a blunt-spoken Marine veteran, and then 28-year-old Jeremy Lewin, who, despite having no government or aid experience, often personally decided which programs should be axed.

By the third week in February, they were on track to wipe out 90% of USAID’s work. Created in 1961 to foster global stability and help advance American interests, USAID was the largest humanitarian donor in the world. In just a month’s time, the small band of appointees had set in motion its destruction.

In a corner conference room, it was time to party. They traded congratulatory speeches and cut into a sheet cake.

Days later, on a remote patch of land in South Sudan, a 38-year-old man named Tor Top gathered with his neighbors outside the local health clinic. Surrounded by floodwaters, their hamlet of thatch and mud homes had been battling a massive outbreak of cholera, a deadly disease spread by poor sanitation. Around the country, it had infected 36,000 people in three months, killing more than 600, many of them babies. Top’s family lived in the epicenter.

The clinic, one of 12 in the area run by the Christian, Maryland-based humanitarian organization World Relief and funded by USAID, provided a key weapon in the fight: IV bags to stave off dehydration and death. The bags cost just 62 cents each, and in three months, the clinics had helped save more than 500 people.

Now, Top, who lived with his wife, children and mother in a one-room house less than 50 feet from the clinic, listened as World Relief staff shared grim news: The Trump administration had stopped USAID’s funding to World Relief. Their clinic, their lifeline, was closing.

Top’s usual gentle demeanor broke down. Why would the U.S. just cut off their medical care in the middle of a deadly outbreak?

By now the broad story of USAID’s ruin has been widely told: The decree handed down by Trump; Elon Musk, who led the new Department of Government Efficiency; and Russell Vought, who holds the purse strings for the administration as the head of the Office of Management and Budget, to scuttle the agency and undo decades of humanitarian work in the name of austerity. Publicly, the administration tried to temper international backlash by promising to keep or restore critical lifesaving programs.

But that promise was not kept. Instead, a cast of Trump’s lesser-known political appointees and DOGE operatives cut programs in ways that guaranteed widespread harm and death in some of the world’s most desperate situations, according to an examination by ProPublica based on previously unreported episodes inside the government as well on-the-ground reporting in South Sudan. In some cases, they abandoned vital operations by clicking through a spreadsheet or ignoring requests in their inboxes.

The abrupt moves left aid workers and communities with no time to find other sources of funding, food or medicine. Borrowing from a phrase used to describe the U.S.’ overwhelming military campaign during the Iraq War, political appointee Tim Meisburger told senior USAID staff that the strategy was “shock and awe.” (Meisburger declined to comment.)

Tibor Nagy, a veteran diplomat who was Trump’s acting undersecretary of state for management until April, has long been a critic of the vast networks of nonprofit organizations funded by American taxpayers. But he told ProPublica the administration never cared to differentiate between the “fluff” and vital humanitarian programs. “It was the most harebrained operation I’d seen in my 38 years with the U.S. government,” Nagy said, referring to the methods used this year. “Who knows how much damage was done.”

In public statements and congressional testimony, Rubio has repeatedly insisted that no one died because of cuts to U.S. foreign aid and that his staff had reinstated lifesaving operations. But ProPublica found that those claims were a charade: Lifesaving programs remained on the books, but the flow of money didn’t restart for months, if at all. Lewin blocked funding requests for programs like tuberculosis treatment in Tajikistan and emergency earthquake response in Myanmar, records show.

This meant that dozens of supposedly “active” operations were dormant throughout most of the year. Rubio’s advisers let other critical programs, which typically run on one-year grants, expire without renewing them.

Few places were hit harder than South Sudan, the youngest and poorest country in the world, as well as one of the most dependent on American aid.

After Trump’s inauguration, career USAID and State Department staff spent months warning top officials that the funding cuts would exacerbate a historic cholera epidemic ripping through the country. They needed less than $20 million to fund lifesaving health programs, including cholera response efforts, for three months at the beginning of the year — an eighth of what Trump recently approved to buy private jets for one cabinet secretary and just 3% of USAID’s budget in South Sudan last year. But Rubio, Marocco and Lewin failed to heed their own agencies’ assessments, according to internal records and interviews.

As a result, people in South Sudan died.

By denying and delaying those funds for months, Trump’s appointees incapacitated the fragile nation’s emergency response systems at the very moment when doctors and aid workers were scrambling to contain cholera’s spread. “We had to start rationing lifesaving interventions,” said Lanre Williams-Ayedun, the senior vice president of international programs for World Relief. “To have something like this happen in a place like this, where there aren’t mechanisms for backup, just means people are going to die.”

Villages and towns that had been reining in the outbreak suddenly lost essential services. Cholera came roaring back. “The trend was going down,” said a former U.S. official. “When we stopped the funding, it just surged.”

This summer, ProPublica journalists hiked and boated across Rubkona County, the epicenter of South Sudan’s outbreak and home to the country’s largest refugee camp, to interview families that the U.S. cut off from help. We collected medical files, diaries, meeting notes and photographs documenting cholera’s devastation after essential services stopped.

Sudan

Detail

Disputed

Malakal

Bentiu

Rubkona

County

ethiopia

Wau

South sudan

Central

African

republic

Juba

Yei

D.R.

Congo

Kenya

Uganda

100 miles

ProPublica also interviewed more than 100 government and aid officials and reviewed enormous caches of previously unreported memos, correspondence and other documents from inside the Trump administration. Many were granted anonymity due to fears of reprisal.

In response to a detailed list of questions, a senior State Department official said fast, drastic changes to foreign aid were necessary to reform a “calcified system.” The world, especially U.S. interests, will be better for it in the long run, the official said, despite “some disruptions in the short term.”

The official also said that Rubio was the final decision-maker for all aid programs. They also contended that they had a limited budget to work with, “which required some tradeoffs on what programs to continue,” saying OMB has ultimate control over new humanitarian funds.

The official maintained that nobody died as a result of the funding cuts. “That’s a disgusting framing,” the official said. “There are people who are dying in horrible situations all around the world, all of the time.”

“Who is responsible for the suffering of the people of South Sudan?” the official added. “The South Sudanese [government leaders] who take their oil revenues and buy private jets and fancy watches and don’t see to their own people? Or the United States? Are we responsible for every poor person all around the world?”

Officially, the death count in South Sudan is nearly 1,600, making it the worst cholera epidemic in the country’s history. But that toll is a dramatic undercount. ProPublica found newly dug, unmarked graves alongside roads and in backyards. In one town, community leaders showed reporters an informal cemetery with at least three dozen people who they said did not make it to medical facilities in time.

Tor Top’s mother, Nyarietna, was one of the uncounted. In March, the clinic doors had been padlocked for two weeks when she developed vomiting and diarrhea. Top bundled her into a rented canoe and began paddling toward the nearest hospital, eight hours away. Less than halfway into the journey, long after they had stopped reassuring one another that she would be OK, Nyarietna died.

Top turned the canoe around and made his way back home, where he buried his mom in their backyard. Now he alone tends the small garden where she grew corn and okra for their family. “If there was medicine here,” he said later, “maybe her life would have been saved.”

A rustic gardening tool rests against the remains of a dead tree, in the midst of a muddy garden with corn and other plants.

Nyarietna’s gardening tool was left behind when she fell ill.

Aid to South Sudan

For years, Sudan’s Arab-led central government waged a campaign of brutal violence against its Christian minority in the south. Their persecution became a cause celebre of the American Evangelical movement, which convinced President George W. Bush’s administration to help broker a peace agreement that led to independence 15 years ago. Since then, the U.S. has given the fledgling nation nearly $10 billion in aid, according to federal data. That money subsidized virtually every corner of the health care system, among other institutions.

Still, South Sudan remains undeveloped. Political instability, corruption and dysfunction are rampant. The transitional government hasn’t paid public employees’ salaries for most of the last two years. U.S. officials had long been on alert to South Sudanese aid workers siphoning resources. Deadly political violence — left over from the civil war and threatening a new one — besets much of the country.

Well before Trump took office this year, the international community had broadly agreed that it was necessary to end the nation’s dependence on foreign aid, and U.S. officials were working on strategies to force its leaders to take responsibility for its citizens.

Some of the most vulnerable among them live in Rubkona County, an oil and cattle hub larger than Rhode Island near Sudan’s border. There, a refugee camp formed in 2014 during the nation’s civil war when thousands of people fled behind a United Nations peacekeeping mission to escape a massacre in the nearby town of Bentiu. As South Sudan’s political turmoil continued to spiral, tens of thousands more fled to the camp. In 2020, Rubkona was hit by a series of catastrophic floods that submerged the majority of the county. Generations of people are now essentially trapped there with nowhere else to go.

A view from above a square patch of land in the midst of blue water. The land is divided by dirt paths into square areas containing the roofs of thousands of small shack structures.

Since South Sudan was hit by catastrophic floods in 2020, the Bentiu refugee camp has been an island, made habitable only through a complex drainage and dike system largely funded by the U.S. Dara Johnston/UNICEF

The Man-Made Island of Trapped Refugees

After the U.N. lost its U.S. funding to maintain dikes, canals and latrines, the Bentiu refugee camp turned into an open sewer that helped spread cholera. More than 110,000 displaced people live in dark, single-room homes made of corrugated metal and tarps on a square mile of land surrounded by floodwaters.

N

Detail

Bentiu

1 mile

1/4 mile

An elaborate drainage system

prevents rainwater from

flooding the camp

Water flow

Canals cut through

neighborhoods, moving contaminated water past people’s homes and into an enormous basin at the camp’s center

United Nations

mission

Motorized pumps

keep the basin from

overflowing

Miles of dikes surround

the camp, the only barrier

between refugees and

the encroaching floodwaters

Floodwaters

Refugee

neighborhoods

Sources: Google Earth, Planet Labs PBC, ProPublica reporting. Chris Alcantara/ProPublica

Scores of people, including the elderly, share a single latrine, a walled-off, overflowing hole in the ground alongside drainage ditches.

A hole in the ground that is overflowing with feces, walled off on three sides by rusty, dilapidated metal doors. A mouse is perched on a wooden beam above the dirt floor.

Rainy months last half the year, softening the camp into a slurry of mud that’s nearly impossible to traverse.

Children play near ditches that are filled with thick, muddy water full of garbage and feces. In the background are a dilapidated metal latrine and numerous simple metal huts.

People survive by fishing in the polluted floodwaters.

A small strip of land divides floodwater. On the land, people use the floodwater to wash dishes, laundry and themselves. In the water, several people use poles to move canoes.

Even before the funding cuts, Bentiu was known by residents and humanitarian workers as one of the most punishing and dilapidated refugee camps in the world.

An intersection of dirt paths is lined with simple wooden and metal shacks used as storefronts. A man in the foreground handles clothing, another crosses the street on a motorcycle and several other people walk along the path.

Previously, USAID gave the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration $36 million for work in South Sudan, which included keeping the Bentiu camp habitable and making critical repairs to the dikes that surround the camp and hold back the rising floodwaters. The group maintained the drainage system and paid people to pick up garbage and clean the latrines — essentially performing sanitation services for 110,000 people.

Despite those efforts, cholera began spreading late last year as new refugees poured in from neighboring Sudan. Rubkona County quickly became the outbreak’s epicenter. In a matter of days, hundreds of infections turned to thousands and the death toll mounted. U.S.-funded organizations raced to set up treatment units in the camp and surrounding communities.

The situation was dire, and people had few viable options to leave Bentiu, U.S. Ambassador Michael Adler reported back to Washington after USAID staff visited the camp to assess the outbreak in early December. The U.S.-funded cholera clinics and other programs were necessary given the “explosivity” of the illness’ spread, he wrote.

It was the kind of routine crisis response that USAID was renowned for handling. The last cholera outbreak in Rubkona, in 2022, lasted seven months, and government statistics say that just one person died while about 420 were sickened. An aggressive sanitation campaign, largely funded by the U.S., was crucial to containing the disease.

In a blurry photograph, a person in a tan vest and surgical mask bends over to place an IV into the arm of a person who is lying on the floor, mostly undressed. Another person holds them.

A person sits on the ground outdoors. Another person lifts a cup of water to their mouth. In the background, people sit on the ground, and other people stand over them, some distributing water. IV bags hang from sticks.

Overwhelmed clinics struggled to keep up with patients during the height of Rubkona’s cholera outbreak. Obtained by ProPublica

Now faced with a new outbreak, the embassy’s staff rushed to get the aid organizations in Rubkona more money, according to the organizations and former officials. By early January, humanitarians were preparing to expand operations. World Relief planned to expand its mobile clinics, Williams-Ayedun said. USAID told Solidarités International, which repaired water pipes, provided sanitation services and distributed soap, to aggressively spend the money it had to combat cholera, with the understanding that the agency would immediately review a proposal for more funds, according to two former officials. An additional $30 million for the U.N.’s migration office — which planned to use the money to continue maintaining the refugee camps — was already committed.

Then Trump took office, signing an executive order on day one to freeze all foreign aid pending a review of whether it aligned with the administration’s stated values.

“Just Throw Them in the Pot”

Days later, Rubio issued sweeping stop-work orders to aid programs worldwide. Musk declared that his DOGE team had fed USAID “into the woodchipper.” After a swift backlash from aid organizations, foreign governments and U.S. ambassadors overseas, Rubio announced that lifesaving operations would continue during his review. Marocco told lawmakers as much during briefings.

It wasn’t true. Behind the scenes, Marocco and his lieutenants repeatedly obstructed USAID’s Africa, humanitarian aid and global health bureaus from restarting programs critical for responding to disease outbreaks, according to interviews and memos obtained by ProPublica. The money aid organizations in South Sudan were expecting by February didn’t come. Meanwhile, the appointees suspended nearly all of USAID’s staff, and those remaining said their bosses blocked payments even for approved programs.

Marocco was meant to be “the destroyer, and then someone else would come in to rebuild,” one former official said a senior political appointee had told her. “I guess the one thing happened, but not the other.” (Marocco did not respond to multiple requests for comment.)

The cuts were so frenetic that, for a brief time, the U.S. government stopped paying for the fuel that ran the electricity for the American embassy in Juba, including the security compound, just as violence was surging throughout South Sudan, according to former senior officials.

In response to questions about the episode in Juba, the senior State Department official denied it was a mistake or that Rubio’s review wasn’t careful. “Going back and looking at things again doesn’t mean that you’ve made a mistake,” the senior official said.

At one point in February, Marocco tried ordering the immediate return of foreign service officers stationed abroad. Several senior USAID officials protested, citing safety and logistical concerns for staff in war zones. During one meeting that month, Lewin responded, “You don’t want to get to know the lobsters. Just throw them in the pot,” according to an attendee and meeting notes.

Lewin joined the government via Musk’s DOGE and later took over for Marocco. He seldom came to the USAID office or met with his own staff experts, officials said. Publicly, he called the agency an “unaccountable independent institution” where secrets leak so quickly “we have to hand-walk memos around like we’re in the ’40s.”

In the weeks that followed, DOGE and Trump appointees forbade those who remained at USAID from communicating with aid groups and discouraged discussion internally, telling staff abroad not to approach ambassadors to advocate for programs, emails show.

Senior staffers said they were prohibited from meeting with congressional delegations to share basic information, which was critical to Congress’ oversight capabilities. The government’s health experts feared that taking any action to save lives could be a fireable offense.

Still, some spoke out.

“The consequences on lives lost and funding squandered will grow exponentially and irreversibly in many cases,” Nicholas Enrich, then an acting assistant administrator at USAID, warned in a Feb. 8 email to agency leaders, including Joel Borkert, the chief of staff, and Meisburger, who led the humanitarian affairs bureau. They did not respond to his plea, and Enrich was later put on administrative leave.

Crucially, even when USAID’s new bosses did approve organizations to resume lifesaving work, they at times denied requests for the money that would allow them to do so, internal records show. Other proposals to fund existing grants or reverse terminations languished in limbo.

The official responding on behalf of the State Department said Trump’s OMB ultimately has more control over approving new grants and extensions, but that it was never the administration’s intention to keep all of the lifesaving programs forever.

When ProPublica asked about the funding delays and the State Department’s explanation, OMB communications director Rachel Cauley said in an email, “That’s absolutely false. And that’s not even how this process works.” She did not clarify what was false, and the State Department did not address when Lewin sought funds from OMB for South Sudan’s cholera response.

In early February, embassy staff in South Sudan provided Adler, the ambassador, with a list of the most critical operations there, warning that funds had not been released and lifesaving programs would cease when their money ran out.

Hundreds of people gather on a large patch of dirt to watch people playing soccer. In the foreground, people walk on a dirt road, one of them pushing a wheelbarrow.

Soccer games are one of the few pastimes in the camp.

A career foreign service officer appointed to his post by the Biden administration, Adler had long been critical of the government of South Sudan for ongoing violence and deserting its own people, according to embassy cables and interviews with people familiar with his thinking.

Still, early on he appeared to recognize that without U.S. intervention, the most vulnerable people in the country did not stand a chance against cholera. In a Feb. 14 memo addressed to the leadership of the State Department’s Africa bureau, Adler asked the administration to release money to keep people alive.

“Lifesaving medicine and medical care, as well as emergency water and sanitation services, play a critical role in controlling disease outbreaks,” the embassy wrote, “notably a severe cholera outbreak in South Sudan’s border regions hosting the greatest number of refugees.”

Adler declined to meet with ProPublica in South Sudan and did not respond to a detailed list of questions.

Death by Spreadsheet CUT IF WORDS LIFE SAVING DID NOT APPEAR?!

As humanitarian groups racked up unpaid bills, they began to file lawsuits challenging the foreign aid freeze. A federal judge ordered the administration to reimburse the organizations. But on Feb. 26, the Supreme Court temporarily paused the lower court’s order.

In a meeting with senior agency staff the next day, Lewin, who at that time was not yet in charge of USAID programs, indicated that he interpreted the recent legal decisions as a potential license to dispense with one of the key review processes for unfreezing operations, according to two attendees and meeting notes. One of those attendees took Lewin’s remarks to mean that “he had no intention to review contracts or implement lifesaving programs.”

In response, the senior State Department official told ProPublica, “No one meant that or said that.”

The next night, a Friday, staff at the Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance, the division of USAID that dealt with emergencies and ran nearly all of the programs in South Sudan, were working late, scrambling to keep emergency programs operational. Suddenly, they noticed Borkert making changes to a key spreadsheet.

To create the spreadsheet, DOGE had sidestepped career staff, pulling information from databases made for project management. It was so rudimentary that it was often impossible to tell what a program did from descriptions as vague as “extension No. 4” or “allocation of funds,” according to people who saw the spreadsheet.

Rubio and his aides had already terminated hundreds of programs in preceding days. Staff were bracing for another round of cuts, but many of the line items remaining in the file were for programs that provided food, clean water or essential medicines.

Veteran USAID officials watched as Borkert scrolled down the spreadsheet, turning rows red, yellow or green every few seconds, never asking a single question. Realizing the red programs were slated to be cut, they frantically started editing descriptions so that Borkert would at least know what those programs did. Within minutes, he’d flagged dozens of them for termination. (Borkert declined to comment.)

A senior staff member in the group raced upstairs and begged Borkert to reinstate them, according to two officials familiar with the episode. He relented on several. But the next day, Marocco and Lewin told the group they’d kept far too many programs, emails show. Lewin ordered 151 additional awards terminated, writing that he would “have strong objections to these awards being turned on.” Marocco followed up by email at 11:30 p.m. saying the reactivations were “far too broad,” indicating several more line numbers and writing “sound like terminations,” next to them, ultimately canceling even more programs.

A headshot of a man in a suit looking at the camera, in front of the American flag.

Peter Marocco U.S. Department of Defense

A yearbook photo of a man in a suit looking at the camera, in front of a blue background.

Jeremy Lewin Dartmouth Rauner Special Collections Library

A headshot of a man in a suit looking at the camera, in front of the American flag.

Joel Borkert U.S. Department of State

A headshot of a man in a suit looking at the camera, in front of the American flag and the USAID logo.

Tim Meisburger USAID

On March 10, Rubio announced on X that the review was over. In response to lawsuits, Trump officials told the courts that the review was a careful examination of USAID’s operations.

More than 5,000 programs had been canceled, and fewer than 1,000 remained — a figure that many officials told ProPublica was arbitrary but binding. In reality, the administration still wasn’t releasing money and many of the surviving programs had no funds, according to interviews with humanitarian groups and government officials, as well as memos and spreadsheets documenting those decisions.

When asked about the current status of the 1,000, the senior State Department official criticized USAID’s former vetting procedures and said the administration is in the process of creating new programs.

Soon after the review ended, the cholera response in South Sudan came crashing down.

A chaotic scene in which a patient is lying on a hospital bed in a tent, apparently unconscious, a woman is holding his hand and cleaning an injection site for an IV, and two other people are leaning in to offer her supplies.

Nyataba Gai, center, a nurse at Bentiu State Hospital, cares for Wicliak Tutdel, who arrived on the edge of death from cholera. Hospital staff revived him with two IV bags of fluids.

“God Is With Us”

Rebecca Nyariaka and Koang Kai were shrouded in grief throughout the upheaval in Washington. Their only child, 4-year-old son Geer, had been one of the first victims when cholera inundated the Bentiu camp in December.

The couple met in secondary school at a refugee camp in Kenya and got married after they’d both returned to their homeland in 2013. After violence broke out, they fled to Bentiu, finding occasional jobs working with health clinics.

Now, in early March, they prodded one another to stay hopeful: 28-year-old Nyariaka was once again pregnant.

In the refugee camp, the couple could see the signs of the funding cuts everywhere. Uncollected garbage barricaded the drainage ditches that encased their neighborhood. Human waste spilled out of the overflowing communal latrines near Nyariaka’s house and into the fetid water filling the culverts. Toilets crawling with rats, maggots and flies became so noxious that neighbors began defecating on the surrounding dirt roads. The stench was overwhelming. “Those who washed the latrines have gone,” Kai said. “And we are left here all alone.”

A latrine in the midst of a refugee camp. One of the stalls is missing a door and is overflowing, and the remaining stalls all have liquid flowing from them into a nearby culvert.

A latrine in the midst of a refugee camp. The latrine is dilapidated, with two missing doors and numerous holes in the walls.

A latrine in the midst of a refugee camp with overflowing stalls and holes in the walls.

A latrine in the midst of a refugee camp with doors that have been tied shut with string.

Latrines across the Bentiu camp are in a dilapidated state, filled with garbage and crawling with rats, maggots and flies.

The U.N.’s new sanitation contract had been committed before Trump took office, but it hadn’t received any money since last year. On March 12, USAID staff in the region sent Washington field notes about the conditions in the camp, where health services faced “closure or severe cutbacks” because of the funding shortfall. Officials at the organization pleaded behind the scenes as well. They repeatedly called and met with embassy leaders to request help, to no avail. “What we have now is survival of the fittest,” one U.N. official told ProPublica.

When Nyariaka gave birth to a healthy baby boy, cholera was rampant throughout the camp. Neighbors were dying around them, and Kai was worried for his wife and new baby. “When cholera enters your home, you know the chances of survival are very low. Very few people survive it,” he said later.

Nyariaka named the baby Kuothethin, “God is with us.” In her first days back from the hospital, her body still healing, the new mom used the bathroom frequently, teetering back and forth to the overflowing latrines close to her house. She soon developed violent vomiting and diarrhea, the hallmark symptoms of cholera.

Kai, tall and muscular, picked her up in his arms and raced to the camp hospital, but it was too late. Nyariaka died just after they arrived.

A man sits on a bed, with a mosquito net hanging above him, in a room with brown mud walls. He has his eyes closed and is holding his chin with one hand.

Koang Kai’s wife, Rebecca, died from cholera she contracted in the camp.

She had been nowhere except her house and the latrines since coming home from the hospital, Kai said. He’s certain the toilets are to blame for her death. Depressed and unable to care for their newborn, he sent the baby across the floodwaters to live with his mother-in-law on another side of the state.

Kai and Nyariaka had been best friends for years before they started dating, their lives intertwined for nearly two decades. “Her whole way of life was good. She loved our children and cared for them,” Kai said. “I am heartbroken.”

As the disease ripped through the camp, more services shut down, including transportation for the dead. Kai’s neighbor, John Gai, lost his father to cholera. Gai had to take him to the cemetery himself in a wheelbarrow, his father’s head bobbing at his knees. “Nobody should have to carry a dead body among the living,” Gai said.

A man stands in the center of a refugee camp, next to a muddy culvert that is full of trash, feces and mud. In the background are people walking by and simple homes made from straw.

John Gai believes his father contracted cholera from the overflowing latrines outside their home in the Bentiu refugee camp.

“Gross Neglect”

On March 28, Rubio notified Congress that he was officially shuttering most USAID operations and transferring programs that survived his review, including several in South Sudan, to the State Department.

Staffers spent the next weeks repeatedly appealing to Lewin — who by then had replaced Marocco as Rubio’s top foreign aid official — for authority to perform the mundane tasks needed to keep the programs operating. In late April, the agency’s humanitarian bureau submitted a blanket request to fund grants that Lewin had already approved. Lewin refused, records show, and the humanitarian bureau had to submit country-specific proposals for consideration. That process dragged on for months.

In June, just before USAID was shut down for good, Lewin finally approved some of the funding the staff had advocated for. But by then it was too late. The officials had run out of time to transfer money already appropriated by Congress to remaining programs.

On June 26, R. Clark Pearson, a supervisory contracting officer at USAID, sent a scathing email to USAID offices around the world in response to an email from the top procurement officer for the agency listing the hundreds of programs that were meant to be active. He said there was no one who could manage the awards, which he called “gross neglect on an astonishing level.”

“In a time of unimaginable hubris, gross incompetence and failures of leadership across the Agency, this has to be one of the most delusional emails I have seen to date,” Pearson wrote. “Lives depend on these awards and for the [U.S. government] to simply not manage them because of an arbitrary deadline is inexcusable.”

That same day, a senior humanitarian adviser informed Adler that payment extensions for several programs, with the exception of food aid, weren’t processed because the “approval was received late.”

In September, the Supreme Court issued another emergency ruling that let the administration withhold nearly $4 billion that Congress earmarked for foreign aid.

Later that month, OMB released some new foreign aid funds. That’s when World Relief finally began to receive funding, allowing the clinic in Tor Top’s community to reopen, even though the administration claimed the program had been “active” for almost seven months.

The U.N.’s migration program has not received a new South Sudan grant. The organization will run out of money for dike maintenance in Bentiu by February, after months of some of the most severe flooding in years.

Waves crash against a collapsed embankment as people walk by in the background.

Some of the heaviest floodwaters in years crashed along Bentiu’s dikes in November. The Trump administration stopped funding the U.N.’s efforts to repair and maintain them. Obtained by ProPublica

A spokesperson for the U.N.’s migration program said the organization was still in discussion with the State Department and “continues to engage with donors about the critical humanitarian needs in South Sudan.”

The Uncounted

During the first months of the cholera outbreak, a mobile health team run by the International Rescue Committee, a U.S.-based nonprofit that works in crisis zones around the world, visited Nyajime Duop’s remote village on the edges of Rubkona County twice weekly. The team brought soap and transported sick people to IRC’s nearby clinic for care.

At 27, Duop’s youthful face belied a life marked by war and poverty. She had arrived just a few months earlier, fleeing violence in Khartoum, Sudan, with an infant and toddler in tow, when Trump officials terminated IRC’s $5.5 million grant.

The IRC suspended its operations in the village in the spring. When Duop’s 1-year-old baby, Nyagoa, fell ill with cholera in July, on a day IRC would have visited, there was no one to help her. By the morning, Nyagoa was unconscious. She died that day, the Fourth of July.

Two women stand and look at the camera wearing brightly colored clothes in front of a field, trees and several homes made of woven straw.

Nyajime Duop, left, and her mother, Mary Nyapuoka. Duop’s 1-year-old daughter died from cholera on the Fourth of July.

Cholera has spread to nearly every corner of South Sudan, infected at least 100,000 people and killed 1,600, though cases began abating this fall. The true death toll is impossible to know, in part because clinics that would have cared for people and counted the dead were shuttered. The Trump administration also cut funding to the World Health Organization, which helped the South Sudanese government gather accurate data on the outbreak.

In a pasture a short walk from IRC’s clinic, ProPublica found at least three dozen mounds covered in sticks — the makeshift graves, village leaders said, of those who died of cholera before reaching the clinic. The clinic’s security guard told reporters he saw one man collapse and die just yards from the front gate.

“There are many more cases,” said Kray Ndong, then acting minister of health for the area, “many more deaths.”

The Trump administration recently announced a new era of foreign aid, where the U.S. will prioritize “trade over aid.” South Sudan, with a gross domestic product one-tenth the size of Vermont’s, has little to offer.

“The administration says they are committed to humanitarian needs,” one aid official in South Sudan said. “But we don’t know what that means, only that it will be transactional.”

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REC DR

Musk Connections:Lawyer at Munger, Tolles & Olson, which has represented Tesla

Other Corporate Affiliations:Worked at investment banking firm Houlihan Lokey

DOGE Deployment:Head of team at USAID, assigned to General Services Administration and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

CORPORATE AFFILIATIONS WITH MUSK TIES
PRIOR TO JOINING MUSK’S ORBIT, LEWIN WROTE OP-EDS CRITICIZING THE “ULTRA-CONSERVATIVE” SUPREME COURT AND BIG TECH

*As Elon Musk’s DOGE continues to tear through agencies with little oversight or transparency, the Revolving Door Project is publishing profiles of reported DOGE employees: who they are, where they came from, and any conflicts of interest that might make their unfettered access to the federal government dangerous to the public. Read them all here.

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comm dr an 5 25

More than a million people in some of the world's most impoverished countries could be fed for three months and hundreds of thousands of children's lives could be saved if $98 million in ready-made meals and other rations were able to leave four warehouses run by the U.S. foreign aid agency dismantled by the Trump administration.

But instead, there is no end in sight to the food languishing in the facilities—or to the starvation of millions of people in Gaza, Sudan, South Sudan, and other parts of the Global South facing high levels of hunger and malnutrition.

Some of the 66,000 tonnes of food, including grains, high-energy biscuits, and vegetable oil, are slated to expire as soon as July, when they will likely be turned into animal feed, incinerated, or otherwise destroyed, Reuters reported Thursday.

The warehouses are located in Houston, South Africa, Djibouti, and Dubai, and are run by the U.S. Agency for International Development's (USAID) Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance. Many of the staff who help run the warehouses are scheduled to be fired on July 1 in the first of two rounds of cuts that will effect nearly all of USAID.

Contracts with suppliers, shipping companies, and contractors have been canceled since USAID was taken over by the Trump administration's so-called Department of Government Efficiency, with the White House saying the agency—with a relatively small budget of just $40 billion—was responsible for "significant waste."

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Since DOGE, run by tech billionaire Elon Musk, targeted USAID in one of its first full-scale attacks on a federal entity, the agency is being run by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The State Department's Office of Foreign Assistance has not yet approved a proposal to give the stranded food stocks to aid organizations for distribution, two former USAID staffers told Reuters.

That office is being led by Jeremy Lewin, a 28-year-old former DOGE employee who is overseeing the complete decommissioning of USAID, which has provided humanitarian assistance in conflict zones and the Global South for more than six decades.

Max Hoffman, a foreign policy adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), said the massive waste of life-saving food rations was the result of President Donald Trump and Musk deploying "some idiot 20 year old staggering around USAID turning things off without the faintest idea of the consequences."

Some of the rations were intended for Gaza, where half a million Palestinians are currently facing starvation and the rest of the population of 2.3 million people are suffering from acute levels of food insecurity due to Israel's total blockade on humanitarian aid which was reimposed in March after a brief cease-fire. Thousands of children have been hospitalized with acute malnutrition since the beginning of the year, but Israel's U.S.-backed assault on Gaza has left health providers with extremely limited means to treat them.

The entire population of Gaza could be fed for a month and a half with the food rations that are on the verge of rotting in the four warehouses, Reuters reported.

Nearly 500 tonnes of high-energy biscuits in Dubai are among the stocks that will expire in July, a former USAID official told the outlet. They could feed at least 27,000 acutely malnourished children for a month.

The food aid was also scheduled to go to Sudan, where famine has been confirmed in at least 10 areas as the country faces the third year of a civil war.

Action Against Hunger is one of many aid groups that have had to scale back operations after losing significant funding due to U.S. cuts; the group said last month that its suspension of work in the Democratic Republic of Congo had already directly led to the deaths of at least six children.

In addition to USAID's warehouses full of soon-to-be-expired food, the U.S.-based company Edesia, which makes the peanut-based Plumpy'Nut, told Reuters that USAID's cuts to transportation contracts had forced the company to open an additional warehouse. A $13 million stockpile of 5,000 tonnes of Plumpy'Nut, which is used to prevent severe malnutrition in children, is in the warehouse now—but could be used to feed more than 484,000 children.

"The dismantling of USAID and cuts to humanitarian aid has been devastating and unacceptable," said Oxfam America.

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Rolling stone no lnx

Top Trump USAID Staffer Accused of Violent Outbursts, Racist Remarks

Ten people who knew Jeremy Lewin expressed concerns about his new position due to troubling behavior in his youth

By Jacqueline Sweet

April 1, 2025

:{The lawyer working for Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) who now leads the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has a history of violence and racist remarks, 10 people who knew him allege. Jeremy Lewin recently became deputy administrator for policy and programs for what’s left of USAID, according to an email sent by the State Department.:{ Lewin previously helped DOGE dismantle the agency, according to news reports. On Friday, Lewin signed an email officially shuttering USAID and announcing a major reduction in force. In the email, which indicated most of USAID’s staff would have their roles eliminated, Lewin wrote that he, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and other top officials “are grateful for your continued service to our great nation.”}:

He continued: “I would like to offer a special thank you to those of you who, even amid considerable personal and professional uncertainty, have remained steadfastly committed to serving the agency and its important mission. You exemplify the very best ideals for public service and will not be forgotten or overlooked in this transition process.” Lewin has prestigious institutions and law firms on his resume, and he’s worked with a renowned liberal scholar and clerked for a progressive jurist. But his ascension at USAID, America’s foreign aid bureau, has sparked concerns among people who have known him over the years. Rolling Stone spoke with 10 such people, who allege that Lewin had a history of violent outbursts and racist remarks. Police records show he was also once accused of threatening a girl with a knife, asking why “he shouldn’t gut [her] and cut [her] right now.” The girl told police she feared for her life. Lewin and the Trump administration have not responded to repeated requests for comment. As deputy administrator of USAID, Lewin functions as its chief operating officer.}:

:{:{Rubio said that 83 percent of the agency’s programs have already been canceled, but sources told The New York Times that some programs involving life-saving medication and national security are likely to be preserved. Lewin, a 28-year-old attorney, attended Harvard Law, where he worked as an assistant to prominent legal scholar Laurence Tribe. He also clerked for a D.C. federal judge and worked brief stints at several high profile law firms during his two-year career as an attorney. The son of a world-renowned classical pianist, Lewin attended the prestigious Massachusetts preparatory high school Buckingham Browne & Nichols School. The Cambridge private school is one of the top feeder schools for Ivy League universities like Harvard, according to The Harvard Crimson. Six people who knew him then described a troubled teen who made outlandish claims and expressed racist remarks. “I have a vivid memory of him telling me that he believed non-white people were inherently of ‘lower value’ than white people,” a former acquaintance who describes him as “blatantly racist” tells Rolling Stone.}:

Five other former acquaintances agree that Lewin expressed views they considered racist. One of those former classmates remembers Lewin claiming that white people were biologically more intelligent than non-white people. Another person who knew Lewin well as a teenager recalls him being ejected from classes for espousing racist ideals. “He was into the Great Replacement Theory before it was a thing,” they say, referring to the racist, far-right conspiracy theory that the elite want to allow in hordes of immigrants to erode the political power of white people. “Hearing that he is in charge of USAID now gives me the chills,” a former acquaintance of Lewin tells Rolling Stone. “I thought he had no empathy. He was fashy, misogynistic, [and] really believed Western civilization was superior. I can see him enjoying taking away humanitarian programs in Africa. It’s frightening. It’s like letting Hannibal Lecter mind kids or something.” Seven people also allege that Lewin has a history of violent outbursts. }:

:{:{While he was at Buckingham Browne & Nichols, Lewin allegedly hit another student with a bowl in the cafeteria and was suspended, seven people tell Rolling Stone. One witness to the bowl incident says Lewin attacked the student in the school cafeteria after the student said something that upset him and recalled the student’s nose bleeding profusely. A different classmate tweeted in 2013 that Lewin had thrown a chair at him. In another tweet, that classmate tagged the boy who was hit with the bowl, inviting him to the “club of having [Lewin] throw things at him,” and adding the hashtag “#angrylewin.” “Violent rages were kind of his thing,” another former classmate says. “I definitely saw him throwing things at people.” Another incident took place out of school, at a party Lewin threw in July 2015 at his parents’ home in Newton, according to a police report and three witnesses who spoke to Rolling Stone. It was the summer after he graduated high school, when he was 18.}:

Police were called to Lewin’s parents’ home after he allegedly brandished a kitchen knife at a girl, three witnesses say. They remember Lewin making threatening comments toward the girl, who was a minor at the time, and describe it as feeling like a sudden overreaction. “You can never really tell when he’s gonna fly off the handle,” says one of those witnesses. “Jeremy started yelling at her and blamed her for his missing belongings,” says the police report. “[Redacted] states during the argument Jeremy pulled out a knife with an Orange [sic] handle and said ‘Tell me why I shouldn’t gut you and cut you right now.’ [Redacted] continued to tell [police officers] that she felt threatened by Lewin’s actions and she was in fear for her life. [Redacted] then left the party and had her friend drop her off at the Newton Police Station.” }:

:{:{In the report, Lewin told police that the girl threatened him during an argument and threw a notepad at his head. He admitted taking out a knife, but said he slammed it on the kitchen countertop and asked her to leave in response. The knife was confiscated by police, the report says. The police officer who investigated the incident called for a hearing to be scheduled “for the charge of assault by means of a dangerous weapon.” One of the party witnesses tells Rolling Stone the hearing was ultimately canceled, for unknown reasons.}:

Representatives from the Newton Police Department and Newton District Court both said they could not provide further information on the case. At least eight people tell Rolling Stone that Lewin regularly presented fanciful and dubious claims. He told people in high school that he was in talks to design body armor for the U.S. government with a multimillion-dollar contract, they say. An archived version of Lewin’s biography at his most recent law firm, Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP, claimed that Lewin “confidentially advised senior global policymakers,” including former President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

After high school, Lewin pursued an educational and career trajectory that spanned the ideological spectrum, despite his own personal politics. At Dartmouth University, he was a member of the College Republican Club, and contributed a piece to the conservative Dartmouth Review, but while at Harvard Law, he penned liberal-leaning op-eds with prominent liberal congressional scholar Laurence Tribe. One of those editorials, published in The Guardian, warned that the conservative-dominated Supreme Court “has climate protection in its sights.” Another piece the two wrote for The New York Times argued that the U.S. should liquidate Russia’s federal reserves and give it to Ukraine in response to Russia’s invasion. }:

:{:{While at Harvard Law, Lewin wrote a 2021 opinion piece titled “The Progressive Case for Libel Reform,” in The Wall Street Journal, arguing that progressives should support overturning New York Times v. Sullivan, the landmark press protection 1964 decision. Lewin argued that rather than harming liberal values of free expression, overturning Sullivan would increase the media’s incentive to be honest. “Progressives should eagerly embrace such movement toward a more truthful society,” he wrote.}:

Lewin worked as Tribe’s assistant, a position also famously held by former President Barack Obama as well as Kenneth Chesebro, an attorney indicted as part of Trump’s legal plot to overturn the 2020 election. Tribe has not responded to requests for comment. After law school, Lewin clerked for Judge Judith Rogers, the first Black woman appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and who is known for her progressive stances. Some of those who knew Lewin say they aren’t surprised that Lewin achieved such early success.

At least six of the people Rolling Stone spoke with describe him as intelligent and driven as he was difficult to get along with. A fellow former Dartmouth College Republican member, Michaelle Knesbach, tells Rolling Stone she thinks Lewin has a chance to improve the U.S. foreign aid apparatus and make it work for the United States’ interests. “I was in a few classes with Jeremy and always found him to have nuanced and educated views,” she says. “He seemed to be a very smart guy, and I am excited to see what he makes of his career.”}:

:{:{Lewin is now playing a leadership role at USAID, which has already been gutted to the bone. His appointment to the deputy administrator position was viewed by some pundits to be a legal maneuver, after a federal judge found that Musk and DOGE’s efforts to shutter the agency were likely unconstitutional.}: That federal judge, however, indicated that appointing Lewin to USAID didn’t exempt Lewin from any decisions about the illegality of DOGE’s actions at USAID. The judge specifically included Lewin in his order prohibiting DOGE from continuing to shut down the agency. It is unclear if Lewin’s Friday email violated that order, though an appeals court ruling that same day allowed the administration to keep dismantling the agency.

Prior to his hiring as USAID’s deputy administrator, Lewin was reportedly earning a salary of $167,000 as the DOGE lead at the agency, seeking daily approvals from Rubio for billions of dollars in cuts, according to Bloomberg. The Trump administration plans to fold the scraps of USAID into a new agency within the State Department, to be named the U.S. Agency for International Humanitarian Assistance, according to The New York Times. A source close to the agency tells Rolling Stone that supervisors recently began onboarding the few remaining USAID staffers onto State Department systems. Those left at the agency are wondering what’s coming next. “We are petrified,” a staffer tells Rolling Stone. “Honestly, we are just broken.”}:

In this article: DOGE, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Marco Rubio, State Department, usaid

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ggl 5 25

P

[### Top Trump USAID Staffer Accused of Violent Outbursts ...

Rolling Stone

https://www.rollingstone.com › politics › politics-features](https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-usaid-jeremy-lewin-accused-violence-racist-remarks-1235307731/)

Apr 1, 2025 — Jeremy Lewin recently became deputy administrator for policy and programs for what's left of USAID, according to an email sent by the State Department.

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[### New DOGE staffer appears to be young lawyer with ...

The Handbasket

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Feb 11, 2025 — The Jeremy Lewin who worked at Munger is a Harvard Law graduate from the Boston area. At Harvard he studied constitutional law under prominent ...

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[### Jeremy P. Lewin | Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP

Firm Prospects

https://engage.firmprospects.com › public › attorneys](https://engage.firmprospects.com/public/attorneys/zw775kNw/munger-tolles-olson-llp/jeremy-p-lewin)

Jeremy Lewin is a litigation associate in the Los Angeles office of Munger, Tolles & Olson. Jeremy's practice centers around financial litigation.

[### DOGE Agent: Jeremy Lewin

Revolving Door Project

https://therevolvingdoorproject.org › lewin-jeremy-dog...](https://therevolvingdoorproject.org/lewin-jeremy-doge-agent/)

Feb 21, 2025 — Jeremy Lewin reportedly headed a three person DOGE team at USAID. He previously worked as at a Musk-connected BigLaw and investment firm.

Missing: p. ‎| Show results with: p.

[### DOGE associate who has history of misogyny, violent ...

The Economic Times

https://m.economictimes.com › ... › Global Trends](https://m.economictimes.com/news/international/global-trends/doge-associate-jeremy-lewin-who-has-history-of-misogyny-violent-outbursts-gets-key-position-at-state-department/articleshow/120315083.cms)

Apr 15, 2025 — DOGE associate Jeremy Lewin, who has a history of misogyny, racism and violent outbursts, has been made acting head of foreign assistance at the State ...

[### Who is in DOGE? Jeremy Lewin - Tosh Berman

Instagram · imtoshberman

8 likes · 2 months ago](https://www.instagram.com/p/DGt3fw4S_0k/?hl=en)

Mr. Lewin is a Harvard Law School graduate who has oversight over grants across government and serves as DOGE's agency lead for the State Department and USAID.

[### Jeremy Lewin

Barnes & Thornburg

https://btlaw.com › people › jeremy-lewin](https://btlaw.com/en/people/jeremy-lewin)

Jeremy Lewin leverages his diverse experience as in-house general counsel, federal investigator, litigator, and corporate attorney to handle a broad range of ...

[### 10+ "Jeremy Lewin" profiles

LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com › pub › dir › Jeremy › Lewin](https://www.linkedin.com/pub/dir/Jeremy/Lewin)

Jeremy Lewin, Medical Oncologist, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Medical Director, Victorian Adolescent & Young Adult Cancer Service.

Missing: p. ‎| Show results with: p.

[### Jeremy Lewin, top DOGE staffer at NIH

Reddit · r/NIH

20+ comments · 1 month ago](https://www.reddit.com/r/NIH/comments/1jpusjq/jeremy_lewin_top_doge_staffer_at_nih/)

I am most definitely shocked that a top Trump /Elon staffer would be making racist remarks. Who could have ever predicted such a thing?!

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[### DOGE Staffer Jeremy Lewin to Lead USAID : r/fednews

Reddit · r/fednews

40+ comments · 2 months ago](https://www.reddit.com/r/fednews/comments/1jf31vp/doge_staffer_jeremy_lewin_to_lead_usaid/)

The leader of USAID was really good at his job and is a conservative. He was so good that multiple administrations kept him on (W, Obama, ...

[### Some DOGE Staffers Are Drawing Six-Figure Government ...

Reddit · r/TrueReddit

90+ comments · 2 months ago](https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueReddit/comments/1j3ka40/some_doge_staffers_are_drawing_sixfigure/)

Jeremy Lewin, one of the DOGE employees tasked with dismantling USAID, who has also played a role in DOGE's incursions into the National ...

[### 🚨 I Just Released the DOGE Dossier — A Deep Dive Into ...

Reddit · r/union

:{:{30+ comments · 1 month ago}:

https://www.reddit.com/r/union/comments/1jo0opi/i_just_released_the_doge_dossier_a_deep_dive_into/

I Just Released the DOGE Dossier — A Deep Dive Into the Secretive Agency Quietly Dismantling the U.S. Government From the Inside. Discussion.

:{:{DOGE Personnel Included in Part 1:}:

1. Adam Ramada 2. Akash Bobba 3. Alexandra “Aly” Beynon 4. Amanda Scales 5. Austin Raynor 6. Brian Bjelde 7. Brooks Morgan 8. Christina Hanna 9. Christopher Stanley 10. Ethan Shaotran 11. Gautier “Cole” Killian 12. Gavin Kliger 13. Greg Hogan 14. Jacob Altik 15. James Burnham 16. Jennifer “Jehn” Balajadia 17. Jennifer Balajadia 18. Jeremy Lewin 19. Jordan M. Wick 20. Justin Monroe 21. Kathryn Armstrong Lovin 22. Katie Waldman Miller 23. Kendall M. Lindemann 24. Kyle Schutt 25. Luke Farritor 26. Marko Elez 27. Michael Russo 28. Nate Cavanaugh 29. Nicole Hollander 30. Nikhil “Nik” Rajpal 31. Noah Peters 32. Rachel Riley 33. Riccardo Biasini 34. Ryan Riedel 35. Stephen Duarte 36. Stephen Ehikian 37. Steve Davis 38. Thomas Shedd 39. Tom Krause}:

[### Jeremy Lewin, top DOGE staffer at NIH

Reddit · r/NIH

20+ comments · 1 month ago](https://www.reddit.com/r/NIH/comments/1jpusjq/jeremy_lewin_top_doge_staffer_at_nih/)

"Police records show he was also once accused of threatening a girl with a knife, asking why “he shouldn't gut [her] and cut [her] right now.” " ...

[### Doge v USAid: how Elon Musk helped his acolytes infiltrate ...

Reddit · r/politics

8 comments · 3 months ago](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/1iipao3/doge_v_usaid_how_elon_musk_helped_his_acolytes/)

Jeremy Lewin, the “AI expert” is saying the unsaid out-loud. This is basically a scheme to gather as much data as they can into Elons grokai ...

[### DOGE Staffers' Massive Salaries Exposed, Contradicting ...

Reddit · r/politics

290+ comments · 2 months ago](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/1j4mfuf/doge_staffers_massive_salaries_exposed/)

Among them, Jeremy Lewin, tasked with dismantling USAID, is earning over $167,000 annually. Kyle Schutt, a software engineer embedded at the ...

[### DO-GE Staffers Salaries @ Max GS Scale Level NOT $0 as ...

Reddit · r/fednews

310+ comments · 2 months ago](https://www.reddit.com/r/fednews/comments/1j4a2sm/doge_staffers_salaries_max_gs_scale_level_not_0/)

Jeremy Lewin, who has been involved with efforts at USAID, NIH and the CFPB, is “listed as making just over $167,000 annually.” Then there's ...

[### DOG-E is now in OD : r/labrats

Reddit · r/labrats

10+ comments · 2 months ago](https://www.reddit.com/r/labrats/comments/1iv9bec/doge_is_now_in_od/)

DOG-E is now in OD. So far we have: Luke Farritor, Clark Minor, Jeremy Lewin. EDIT: Rachel Riley. They're in NED. My guess is they are going after NBS payment ...

[### Judge includes new USAID head in order against ...

Reddit · r/politics

5 comments · 1 month ago](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/1jl2orp/judge_includes_new_usaid_head_in_order_against/)

Chuang blocked DOGE from further dismantling USAID. Justice Department attorneys argued that Lewin is not covered by that order. On Friday, the ...

[### DOG-E appears to have onboarded at NIH : r/fednews

Reddit · r/fednews

6 comments · 2 months ago](https://www.reddit.com/r/fednews/comments/1iv8r90/doge_appears_to_have_onboarded_at_nih/)

DOG-E appears to have onboarded at NIH. So far we have: Luke Farritor, Clark Minor, Jeremy Lewin. EDIT: Rachel Riley. They're in the public-facing directory.

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[### Jeremy Lewin - Newton Centre, Massachusetts, United ...

LinkedIn · Jeremy Lewin

2 followers](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremy-lewin-53304688)

Student at Buckingham Browne and Nichols School · Education: Buckingham Browne and Nichols School · Location: Newton Centre · 2 connections on LinkedIn.

[### Jeremy Lewin, a senior official at Elon Musk's Department ...

Facebook · WKYC Channel 3 - Cleveland

80+ reactions · 2 months ago](https://www.facebook.com/WKYC.Channel3/posts/jeremy-lewin-a-senior-official-at-elon-musks-department-of-government-efficiency/1074329924722578/)

Jeremy Lewin, a senior official at Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, is taking a leadership role at the US Agency for International Development.

[### Jeremy Lewin takes the role from Peter Marocco, who was ...

Facebook · Devex

20+ reactions · 1 month ago](https://www.facebook.com/Devex/posts/jeremy-lewin-takes-the-role-from-peter-marocco-who-was-seemingly-ousted-over-the/1104508238373762/)

Jeremy Lewin takes the role from Peter Marocco, who was seemingly ousted over the weekend.

Missing: outlook. ‎| Show results with: outlook.

[### Jeremy Lewin - American Society of Anesthesiologists

LinkedIn · Jeremy Lewin

80+ followers](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremy-lewin-523a22a)

Greater Chicago Area · General Counsel · American Society of Anesthesiologists®

General Counsel at American Society of Anesthesiologists® · Experience: American Society of Anesthesiologists® · Location: Greater Chicago Area · 82 ...

[### Jeremy Lewin Email & Phone Number | Munger, Tolles & ...

RocketReach

https://rocketreach.co › jeremy-lewin-email_79240086](https://rocketreach.co/jeremy-lewin-email_79240086)

Jeremy Lewin, based in Santa Monica, CA, US, is currently a Associate at Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP. Jeremy Lewin brings experience from previous roles at ...

[### Jeremy Present Lewin # 348788

State Bar of California Attorney Search (.gov)

https://apps.calbar.ca.gov › attorney › Licensee › Detail](https://apps.calbar.ca.gov/attorney/Licensee/Detail/348788)

Jeremy Present Lewin #348788, License Status: Active, Address: 10250 Constellation Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90067, Phone: Not Available | Fax: Not Available.

[### Detailing/hiring arrangements for Jeremy Lewin (United ...

MuckRock

https://www.muckrock.com › united-states-of-america-10](https://www.muckrock.com/foi/united-states-of-america-10/detailinghiring-arrangements-for-jeremy-lewin-united-states-doge-service-183820/)

Mar 24, 2025 — Jeremy Lewin stated that he has been employed at USAID since 1/28/2025 as a Senior Advisor. He also declares he has never worked for Elon Musk or the USDS.

Images

Jeremy Lewin Email & Phone Number | Munger, Tolles & Olson ...

RocketReach

Jeremy Lewin, Chicago Attorney | Barnes & Thornburg

Barnes & Thornburg

Elon Musk DOGE aide Jeremy Lewin, meet the MA native leading ...

The Boston Globe

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