A top US State Department official waived nine mandatory counterterrorism and anti-fraud safeguards to rush a $30 million award last month to a Gaza aid group backed by the Trump administration and Israel, according to an internal memorandum seen by Reuters.
Jeremy Lewin, a former Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) associate, signed off on the award despite an assessment in the memorandum that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s (GHF) funding plan failed to meet required “minimum technical or budgetary standards”.
The June 24 action memorandum to Lewin was sent by Kenneth Jackson, also a former DOGE operative who serves as an acting deputy US Agency for International Development (USAID) administrator.
Lewin also overrode 58 objections that USAID staff experts wanted GHF to resolve in its application before the funds were approved, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
Lewin, who runs the State Department’s foreign aid programme, cleared the funds only five days after GHF filed its proposal on June 19, according to the June 24 “action memorandum” bearing his signature, seen by Reuters.
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