Federal workers at USAID could find themselves behind bars for fraud after DOGE uncovered a massive spending scandal at the program, DailyMail.com has learned
Pete Marocco, deputy administrator-designate at USAID, provided the House Foreign Affairs Committee with a briefing on Capitol Hill Wednesday while discussing the review of foreign aid implemented by President Donald Trump.
Moracco told the committee he is considering sending criminal recommendations to the Justice Department regarding actions within USAID being exposed by Elon Musk’s DOGE.
‘Apparently, there’s still judicial action that has even come out as late as this morning,’ Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, who was in the meeting, told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview.
‘They intend to refer USAID officials to DOJ,’ he shared, noting how fraud ‘is a criminal act.’
The Republican shared that Marocco left open the possibility that both USAID workers and grant recipients could be recommended for crimes.
‘If they are detecting outright fraud, not just bad programs, not just ignoble programs, not just programs that don’t support the national interest of the United States, if they’re finding fraud, then, absolutely’ the wrongdoers should be prosecuted, Rep. Self said.
Pete Marocco, a political appointee focused on gutting USAID, departs after briefing the House Foreign Affairs Committee behind closed doors, on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. During the meeting he told lawmakers that criminal recommendations against those involved with USAID fraud are being considered
U.S. Representative Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., walks past protesters as Pete Marocco, deputy administrator-designate at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), attends a meeting with members of Congress to discuss foreign assistance
People hold placards, as the USAID building sits closed to employees after a memo was issued advising agency personnel to work remotely, in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 3, 2025
Self noted that Marocco and USAID would not share their plans for criminal recommendations unless they had a rock solid ‘paper trail.’
‘You’re going to have to have a paper trail to to prove that,’ Self added. ‘And I doubt that they would refer anyone without a very strong paper trail.’
Another source in the meeting who spoke to DailyMail.com confirmed the potential legal action.
‘Marocco briefed the full House Foreign Affairs Committee, Democrats and Republicans, that the waste, fraud, and abuse at USAID was more severe than initially presumed,’ the source shared.
‘He told lawmakers that multiple referrals to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution were being considered,’ they continued.
‘The conduct in question arose because of USAID’s decentralized accountability system that often left grantees on the ground using American tax dollars in ways that were both inappropriate and potentially illegal,’ the source disclosed.
Though Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been tasked to lead USAID, Marocco is the one running point on many of the agency’s operations.
DOGE leader Elon Musk with Trump. Musk has said that USAID is a ‘criminal organization’
A young man carries a USAID 50kg bag of Sorghum delivered by small boats to a makeshift port meeting the flood water at the dam protecting the Bentiu IDP camp in Bentiu, South Sudan, July 26, 2023
Thousands of employees have been put on administrative leave after Musk noted that the agency was rotten to the core with fraud.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee held a hearing last month about the wasteful spending found at USAID and the State Department.
During the session Republicans decried frivolous projects like ‘$2 million to conduct sex change surgeries in Guatemala through a trans led organization’ and ‘$22 million to increase tourism in Tunisia and Egypt.’
Democrats argue that USAID’s spending is critical to forward U.S. objectives abroad, and have recently noted that Musk and Trump’s handling of the agency has provoked fears of Ebola spreading due USAID funding for prevention programs being halted.
This week the Supreme Court ruled that $2 billion in USAID funding that Trump froze would have to be thawed and delivered.
