FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 25, 2025
MEDIA CONTACT
Alexis Posel, [email protected]
USAID Whistleblower Placed on Administrative Leave by Trump Administration Details Blow to Health Security Around the World
Whistleblower Aid calls for investigation into the Trump Administration’s mishandling of humanitarian assistance and abuse of executive authority.
Washington, D.C., March 25, 2025 – The Trump Administration’s gutting of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is a part of the broader undertaking of the White House and of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to descale the federal government and sow chaos into the nation’s Democratic institutions.
Nicholas Enrich, the Acting Assistant Administrator for Global Health at USAID, was placed on administrative leave less than thirty minutes after the publication of his memo, which warned that preventative death will occur as a result of the pause on life-saving humanitarian aid.
Mr. Enrich’s whistleblower disclosure filed with the U.S. government details the implications regarding the dismantlement of USAID’s Bureau for Global Health. Critically, Enrich, as well as members of his team were responsible for the development and surveillance of dangerous infectious diseases to include Tuberculosis, Malaria, and Ebola – as dictated by global health funding allocated by Congress.
Earlier today during a House Foreign Affairs Committee shadow hearing, Nicholas Enrich said, “The end to critical USAID global health programs creates substantial risks to U.S. national security. A halt to global health aid programs increases the risk of dangerous diseases reaching the U.S. In a globally connected world, outbreaks abroad do not stay overseas. When public health systems – with support from USAID – fail to contain infectious diseases, the chances of U.S. exposure rise through travel, military personnel, and migration. Uncontrolled epidemics abroad could trigger serious outbreaks in America.”
Mr. Enrich warns that pandemics and biological threats do not respect borders, and that the dismantlement of the Bureau for Global Health increases the risk of global widespread illness. For instance, Ebola, which has already killed four in Uganda, will continue to spread if the failure of USAID leadership to administer personal protective equipment persists.
“The Trump Administration’s decision to dismantle USAID’s Bureau for Global Health and place Nick Enrich on administrative leave is not only a failure of integrity, it is also illegal,” Andrew Bakaj, Chief Legal Counsel of Whistleblower Aid said. “Nick joined the federal service to serve the American people and to help vulnerable populations around the world. DOGE has created a disaster waiting to happen both here and abroad. Slashing vital support for millions that results in untold suffering and death is reckless, dangerous, and worst of all: avoidable.”
###
Whistleblower Aid provides pro bono legal, advocacy, and communications support to government and private sector whistleblowers acting in the public interest. The organization’s lawyers have represented some of the most consequential national security and Big Tech whistleblowers in history, including the Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, the anonymous intelligence community whistleblower whose disclosures led to the first impeachment of President Trump, and others.
Whistleblower Aid is a 501(c)(3) organization
