A federal judge ruled President Donald Trump must restore federal funding and employees to Voice of America and two of its sister outlets that the Trump administration has accused of spewing “radical propaganda.”
Under U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth’s preliminary injunction issued Wednesday, the U.S. Agency for Global Media must rehire employees working at VOA, Radio Free Asia, and Middle East Broadcasting Network. Additionally, congressional funding must not be withheld from the three outlets.
“In short, the defendants had no method or approach towards shutting down USAGM that this Court can discern,” Lamberth said in his ruling. “They took immediate and drastic action to slash USAGM, without considering its statutorily or constitutionally required functions as required by the plain language of the [executive order], and without regard to the harm inflicted on employees, contractors, journalists, and media consumers around the world.”
“It is hard to fathom a more straightforward display of arbitrary and capricious actions than the Defendants’ actions here,” he added.
The ruling does not apply to Radio Free Europe and Open Technology Fund, two other news groups falling under USAGM.
The feud between Trump and USAGM started in March when the president signed an executive order effectively dismantling the entity, calling for it to be “eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law.” The order also called for USAGM’s workforce to be reduced to “the minimum presence and function required by law.”
In a statement vowing to fully implement the executive order, USAGM senior adviser Kari Lake said that “waste, fraud, and abuse run rampant in this agency and American taxpayers shouldn’t have to fund it.”
She further accused USAGM, which oversees Voice of America, of “massive” national security violations, signing off on wasteful “eye-popping self-dealing involving contracts, grants and high-value settlement agreements,” and spending hundreds of of-millions of dollars “on fake news companies.” More than 1,200 employees under USAGM’s umbrella were subsequently placed on leave.
In reaction to Trump’s executive order, which they described as “a government shutdown of journalism,” VOA employees promptly filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration and Lake.
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“In many parts of the world, a crucial source of objective news is gone, and only censored state-sponsored news media is left to fill the void,” the VOA employees argued in the lawsuit.
The White House has described the VOA as “The Voice of Radical America,” arguing that the news service is overrun with bias, due to instances such as revelations it told staff not to label Hamas as terrorists.
