Judge voids Trump’s dismantling of public media company over Kari Lake appointment
A federal judge ordered a reversal of a government media agency’s dismantling due to the legality of former broadcaster-turned-politico Kari Lake’s appointment. The Arizona Republican said her legal team would appeal the “outrageous” ruling.
U.S. District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth ruled on Saturday that Lake didn’t have the legal authority to defund Voice of America, a government-run media apparatus formed during World War II to counter Nazi propaganda.
The media outlet is a shell of what it was after Lake followed President Donald Trump’s executive order and stripped it of funding and most personnel. Trump cited “radical propaganda” as justification for VOA’s closure.
What effect the ruling will have on VOA’s operations is uncertain. The news outlet previously disseminated news via broadcast, radio and online in 49 languages, reaching hundreds of millions of people each week.
Lake officially assumed the role of U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) CEO in July 2025.
Why did the judge rule to reverse the firings?
Lamberth, the District of Columbia Circuit judge, keyed in on the process of how Lake assumed control of the outlet but was never confirmed by the Senate.
Before taking office in January, then-President-elect Trump announced Lake would serve as VOA director, but the position can only be changed by the International Broadcasting Advisory Board. Trump fired all but one member of the seven-person panel, which threw a wrench in the plan.
Instead, Trump installed Lake as an adviser to USAGM acting CEO Victor Morales. In March 2025, Morales delegated nearly all of his duties to Lake. She was later promoted to deputy CEO and then replaced Morales in July.
It was then that she oversaw the shuttering of VOA’s broadcast operations and initiated mass layoffs, which triggered the lawsuit filed by former employees last November.
Lake’s legal team argued that her appointment was valid because she had been installed as a deputy CEO before taking the role. The judge countered that Lake would have had to have either been confirmed by the Senate in another role or served under a confirmed CEO. Allowing such a process, the judge said, would allow a president to regularly circumvent the confirmation process.
“The Court declines Lake’s invitation to do such violence to the statutory and constitutional scheme,” Lamberth said.
Reaction to the ruling
Lake said late Saturday that she would “appeal this outrageous ruling from an activist DC District Court Judge.”
Former VOA employees involved in the suit told CNN that they feel “vindicated” by the judge’s ruling.
“The judge’s ruling that Kari Lake’s actions shall have no force or effect is a powerful step toward undoing the damage she has inflicted on this American institution that we love,” they told the outlet.
Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
