Judge rebukes Kari Lake by ordering Voice of America staffers back to work : NPR

A federal judge ordered the parent agency of the Voice of America to return the network’s 1,042 full-time employees who had been put on leave back to work by Monday, ruling that Trump administration official Kari Lake’s efforts to dismantle the news outlet were “arbitrary and capricious.”

U.S. District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth last month ruled that Lake had unlawfully taken on almost all powers of the chief executive of the network’s federal parent, called the U.S. Agency for Global Media, and therefore that her actions since joining as senior adviser to the agency were invalid. She has since taken on various senior titles at the agency. For several months, she called herself the acting CEO, a position which it does not appear she is legally eligible to fill, as NPR first reported last August. She most recently has been its deputy CEO.

In his ruling Tuesday, Lamberth declared that Lake had violated the law on additional grounds. He ruled that she failed to take into account Congress’ intentions in setting aside money for the agency and the network or to consider what the implications would be of effectively shutting it down.

“We are thrilled with Judge Lamberth’s ruling and look forward to getting back to work,” Voice of America Director Michael Abramowitz said after the ruling. “Voice of America has never been more needed.”

Under Lake, the agency sought to assign Abramowitz to a small short-wave radio facility in North Carolina and then to fire him for refusing to accept the reassignment. Abramowitz is among those whose positions will be restored, assuming that Lamberth’s ruling stands.

Neither Lake nor an agency spokesperson replied immediately to NPR’s request for comment. In the past, Lake has said she would appeal Lamberth’s rulings and accused the judge of being an activist legislating from the bench.

The Voice of America was established at the outset of World War II to counter Nazi propaganda in occupied regions. It provided news of Allied defeats as well as their victories to earn credibility.

As the Cold War emerged from the ashes of war, the U.S. expanded the Voice of America as a form of soft power, to provide news to countries where a free press was blocked, intimidated or not financially viable. It also served to model what journalism looked like in a pluralistic democracy, incorporating unwelcome news and dissent.

Until Lake’s overhaul, Voice of America reached 361 million people weekly on 49 different language services in more than 100 countries, according to court filings. That was down to six language services early this year, the agency says.

Lake arrived at the White House with a resume as a local TV news anchor and failed two-time candidate for statewide office in Arizona — and, as a full-throated supporter of President Trump.

During her time at the U.S. Agency for Global Media, Lake showed signs of wanting to keep Voice of America afloat but to cast it in a more Trumpian image. Last year, she canceled contracts with Reuters and the Associated Press news services and struck a deal with the far-right One America News Network to carry its reports for free. This year, she sang Trump’s praises on an hour-long retrospective of his first year back in the White House.

In public and in court documents, Lake and U.S. Justice Department trial attorneys representing the agency justified their actions by repeatedly invoked Trump’s executive order of March 14, 2025. It called for the agency and others to be reduced to “the minimum presence and function required by law.” (An accompanying news release was headed “The Voice of Radical America.” Trump and Lake have attacked the network’s coverage of the U.S. as anti-American as justification for dismantling it.)

Lake had pointed to a three-page agency memo as guidance on how the order would be put in place. Lamberth, an appointee of former President Ronald Reagan, said it failed to weigh any required reasons for her actions.

“[T]he defendants do not dispute that the document ‘contains no findings, analysis, or consideration of any relevant factors’ apart from an assertion, as inscrutable as it is conclusory, that ‘[t]he Voice of America functional requirement and scope is duplicative with the activities of [United States] private broadcasters’,” Lamberth wrote.

He continued, “The effect of the defendants’ action has been to keep USAGM employees on administrative leave despite Congress’ repeated appropriations at levels indicating a clear intent to maintain substantial broadcast operations.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers appropriated $643 million toward the agency earlier this year, specifying allocations for Voice of America and the other international networks the agency funds. Lake had asked for $153 million — only enough money to wind down the network and the agency.

Yet Lamberth handed Lake a partial victory; he declined to restore hundreds of contractors whose positions were severed under Lake. The judge concluded their fate had to be considered by administrative courts that handle labor disputes within the U.S. government.