A federal appeals court on Thursday dashed the hopes of journalists and free-press advocacy groups seeking to stave off the near-total dismantlement of Voice of America by the Trump White House.
The administration, led by senior adviser Kari Lake, has iced almost the entire workforce. It has laid off hundreds of contract employees and put permanent workers on indefinite leave, citing a March 14 executive order from Trump.
Last month, U.S. District Court Senior Judge Royce C. Lamberth ordered Lake and the Voice of America's federal parent, the U.S. Agency for Global Media, to bring back workers and get the network up and running, as Congress intended through law. He also ruled that the administration had to restore Radio Free Asia and Middle East Broadcasting Networks, calling their dismemberment "arbitrary and capricious."
"Not only is there an absence of 'reasoned analysis' from the defendants; there is an absence of any analysis whatsoever," Lamberth wrote.
Earlier this month, by a 2-to-1 margin, an appeals court panel temporarily froze Lamberth's ruling, as it takes time to consider the full merits of the case. It has not yet issued a decision on the full case.
In the meantime, however, Lake has plunged back into slashing the ranks of the workforce, with hundreds of contract employees let go for a second time over the past weekend. The Voice of America website hasn't posted new stories in more than two months.
On Thursday, the full appellate court made clear it would not intervene, at least for now.
"We are devastated and concerned that this ruling might lead to further adverse reactions from the administration," Patsy Widakuswara, the lead plaintiff and White House bureau chief for Voice of America tells NPR. "But our day in court is not over yet, and we are committed to fighting until we can return to our congressionally mandated right to broadcast factual, balanced, and comprehensive news."
Lake did not reply to a request for comment.
An effort to cut "frivolous expenditures"
What future lies in store for the network and its sister broadcasters remains unclear.
Under Lake's guidance, the agency has killed a lease for a new headquarters, canceled contracts to carry reporting from the Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse wire services, and struck a deal to carry coverage from the far-right and pro-Trump One America News network.
Lamberth's requirement that Lake and the agency comply with the law stays in effect. Administration officials maintain they are doing just that — even as they withhold money from VOA and its sister networks that Congress has allocated.
Trump's March executive order called for the U.S. Agency for Global Media and several other institutions to be "eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law." The order also stated that those organizations "shall reduce the performance of their statutory functions and associated personnel to the minimum presence and function required by law:"
The White House cited the move as part of a broader effort to cut government waste on "frivolous expenditures that fail to align with American values or address the needs of the American people."
In addition to Widakuswara, the plaintiffs in the lawsuit include VOA Director Michael Abramowitz and at least one unnamed U.S. Agency for Global Media employee. The workforce, which has been reduced to a token presence, has been whipsawed between the various court rulings. The plaintiffs say the administration has violated clear-cut Congressional statutes as well as Constitutional protections of free speech.
"With the decision today, I am concerned that USAGM will move quickly to make further reductions," Abramowitz wrote in a letter to staff Thursday. "Please be assured that we are reviewing our legal options."
According to three employees of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, Lake appears intent on running the agency on a shoestring, and reducing Voice of America to a handful of foreign language services, including Mandarin for China, Farsi for Iran, and Dari and Pashto for Afghanistan. (The people who spoke were granted anonymity to characterize unfolding events at the agency, given fears of retaliation.)
A lifeline for one broadcaster
Voice of America was established in World War II to provide reliable news in places controlled by the Nazis and to hold out the prospect of what life could be like under democratic Allied rule.
Taken together, VOA and its four sister networks reach 420 million people in 63 languages and more than 100 countries each week, according to the U.S. Agency for Global Media. They are fully funded by the U.S. government.
The networks' mission is to deliver news coverage and cultural programming to places where a free press is threatened or doesn't exist. They are also designed as a form of soft diplomacy, modeling independent journalism that incorporates dissent from government policy.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, founded early in the Cold War, this week secured millions of dollars from the European Union as a temporary lifeline as it awaits its Congressionally authorized payments for the month of May. The government owes it $75 million for the rest of the year, under legislation passed by Congress. The network, which a court ordered the government to pay, has already engaged in furloughs and cut back on programming as it awaits the funds.
What's next for VOA?
In her public rhetoric, mostly on social media and right-wing media appearances, Lake has veered between promising to restore the networks to their historic mission and pledging to demolish them.
In December, then President-elect Trump said he would appoint Lake to lead Voice of America, though he does not have legal authority to do so. She called the network "a vital international media outlet dedicated to advancing the interests of the United States by engaging directly with people across the globe and promoting democracy and truth."
A few days after Trump's inauguration, Lake said she wanted to make sure Voice of America was "telling the American story accurately and fairly."
"We don't want VOA to be Trump Derangement Syndrome News, nor do we want it to be Trump TV," Lake tweeted.
In March, a few days after Trump's executive order, she called the network "unsalvageable."
In April, Lake called Voice of America "anti-American propaganda" and said she was "scaling it back."
In early May, Lake hailed the appellate panel's ruling. "BIG WIN," she posted on social media. "Turns out the District Court judge will not be able to manage the agency as he seemed to want to."
The full appellate court Thursday allowed Lake to proceed, at least for the moment.
That said, in a case with some parallels, a federal judge on Monday struck down the takeover of the U.S. Institute for Peace by the White House budget-cutting DOGE initiative. In March, the same judge declined to issue a temporary ruling blocking the move by DOGE staffers, reserving her right to rule on the merits subsequently.
Copyright 2025 NPR
