An employee of Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge), who was parachuted in as a senior manager at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) as it was being wound up, has been accused of a history of misogyny, racism and violent outbursts.
The claims against 28-year-old Jeremy Lewin were made following an investigation by Rolling Stone magazine, which said it was based on interviews with 10 people who know him.
Among the claims are that a girl had complained to police that Lewin had threatened her with a knife, that he physically assaulted a fellow student in the cafeteria at the elite private school he attended, and that had a history of racist remarks.
The magazine said neither the Trump administration nor Lewin had responded to repeated requests for comment. Representatives for Doge did not immediately respond to the Guardian’s requests for comment about Lewin, and a representative for the Department of State, which assumed control of USAID programs after it was shuttered, said it does not comment on personnel matters.
According to the magazine: “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,’” adding that the girl told police she feared for her life.
Lewin was recently appointed deputy administrator for policy and programmes at what remained of USAID after the Trump administration’s decision to dismantle it. On Tuesday, Reuters reported that all local workers, diplomats and civil servants associated with USAID overseas had been fired, the final step in shuttering the aid organization. Congress was notified on Friday that virtually all of USAID’s employees were to be fired by September and all of its overseas offices will be shuttered.
According to Rolling Stone, it was Lewin who signed the email last week officially closing USAID as he noted that he and Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, were “grateful” for employees’ “continued service to our great nation”.
According to the magazine, Lewin previously worked with the prominent constitutional legal scholar Laurence Tribe, a frequent critic of Trump, and those familiar with Lewin described an individual prone to violent outbursts and racially demeaning comments.
“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 called him “blatantly racist” told Rolling Stone, one of five former classmates it said made similar remarks.
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 said.
The claims about Lewin follow controversies over other individuals who have become promoted by Musk and Doge. In February another young Musk hire at Doge, 25-year-old Marko Elez, who previously worked for Musk’s SpaceX company, resigned over racist remarks before Musk insisted he would rehire him.
A social media account connected to Elez posted a variety of inflammatory comments including the statement: “Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool.” Another post, in September, said: “You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity.”
The most serious incident involving Lewin occurred at a party at his parents house in 2015.
According to the police report seen by Rolling Stone, “Jeremy started yelling at [a girl who was also at the party] and blamed her for his missing belongings.”
“[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 police officer who investigated the incident called for a hearing to be scheduled “for the charge of assault by means of a dangerous weapon”, which ultimately did not take place for reasons that are not clear.
