U.S. Judge says Kari Lake broke law in overseeing Voice of America : NPR
Kari Lake, senior advisor to the U.S. Agency for Global Media, leaves following a House Administration Committee hearing on federal elections on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026, in Washington.
Tom Brenner/AP
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Tom Brenner/AP
A federal judge overseeing a series of legal challenges to the Trump administration’s push to dismantle Voice of America ruled Saturday night that Kari Lake acted illegally in running the network’s parent agency.
“Lake fails to meet the requirements of either the law or the Constitution,” U.S. District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth wrote in his decision. He said all of Lake’s actions over the past year were null and void. This includes the layoffs of more than 1,000 journalists and staff at the U.S. Agency for Global Media and Voice of America.
NPR first reported in-depth last August on questions about the legality of her taking the title and powers as the agency’s self-proclaimed interim executive director.
The judge’s decision represents an absolute rebuke to the Trump White House and particularly to Lake and his inner circle. It followed a series of courtroom exchanges in which Lamberth found unconvincing the government’s arguments that Congress had no role to play in the future of the agency and the network and questioned Lake’s credibility from the bench. Last summer, he threatened Lake with contempt of court.
Lake told NPR Saturday night that she would appeal the decision by Lamberth, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan. “The American people gave President Trump a mandate to cut bloated bureaucracy, eliminate waste, and restore accountability to government,” she wrote. “An activist judge is trying to obstruct these efforts at USAGM. Judge Lamberth has a string of activist decisions – and this case is no different.”
If left in place, Lamberth’s decision would open the door to reversing a series of radical actions taken by Lake in an attempt to kill Voice of America and other federally funded international networks. These include Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and Middle East Broadcast Networks, each of which has been involved in separate litigation against Lake and the agency.
Among the decisions made under Lake’s leadership: firing all contractors; dismissal of almost all permanent full-time network and agency staff; fire the director of Voice of America; strike a deal to carry content from the right-wing television network One America News Network; withholding money from sister networks such as Radio Free Europe and Radio Free Asia; and eliminating a lease for a new headquarters that previous agency leaders said would save the federal government tens of millions of dollars.
More recently, Lake was accused of turning Voice of America’s few remaining broadcasts into a platform for pro-Trump propaganda, particularly regarding the conflict in Iran.
The Voice of America building in Washington DC
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Gene J. Puskar/AP
Since its beginnings during World War II, Voice of America has been designed to serve as a demonstration of soft power, showing how American-style journalism can directly incorporate dissent and adverse facts into its reporting.
Three of the named plaintiffs issued a joint statement saying they felt “vindicated and deeply grateful” for the judge’s decision, calling it “a powerful step toward repairing the damage she has inflicted on this American institution we love.”
“Journalism, not propaganda”
“This brings renewed hope and momentum to the next phase of our fight: restoring VOA’s global operations and ensuring that we continue to produce journalism, not propaganda,” the three plaintiffs wrote. They are Voice of America journalists Patsy Widakuswara and Jessica Jerreat and Kate Neeper, director of strategy for the US Agency for Global Media.
“Today is a victory in the fight against autocracy,” said Skye Perryman, president and CEO of the legal advocacy group Democracy Forward, who served as co-counsel for the plaintiffs. “This decision is a powerful affirmation of the rule of law.”
While an appeals court ruling had previously questioned the judge’s jurisdiction to order people back to work, Lamberth’s previous ruling stood, requiring Lake and the agency to ensure that Voice of America continues to offer the levels of programming set by Congress.
Until last year, the federally funded international channel broadcast news in 49 languages, reaching countries where a free press is either under pressure from authorities or is not financially viable. That number had fallen to six languages by January, according to the agency.
The judge’s ruling Saturday sidestepped the constitutional question of balancing congressional power and presidential prerogatives, in favor of a thorough legal review of whether Lake had the authority to make the decisions she did.
Before taking office a second time, Trump announced that he hoped to nominate Lake to take over as CEO of Voice of America. Once in office, Trump appointed a conservative activist to head the U.S. Agency for Global Media. But this appointment never took place; the critic, Brent Bozell III, became ambassador to South Africa instead.
As Trump had fired six of the seven members of the watchdog that has Congressional authority to appoint Voice of America’s director in the absence of an agency CEO, Lake was in limbo. Trump named her a senior adviser to the agency in late February 2025. (Lamberth ruled that Voice of America director Michael Abramowitz could not be fired in the absence of the board or a legitimate CEO.)
At that time, the interim CEO was Victor Morales, former director of the Voice of America agency. In early March 2025, Morales issued a delegation order designating Lake to perform almost all of the duties and responsibilities assigned to the CEO position. In July, she was named acting deputy chief executive of the White House. He again gave him the vast majority of CEO power.
Lake would later testify that she exercised about “95 percent” of the CEO’s duties and powers and that the interim CEO was responsible for only a few things.[w]written reports.
“Ineligible to serve”
“It is clear that Lake had de facto control of the agency under those delegations,” Lamberth wrote, meaning that she headed the U.S. Agency for Global Media. And then on July 31, to Morales’ apparent surprise, Lake began calling herself the agency’s acting CEO.
In the months since, NPR has repeatedly asked Lake, the agency, the White House and the Bureau for any documentation related to his appointment to the acting position. None came.
NPR found no public evidence that Trump ever appointed Lake to the position. And under U.S. law, it doesn’t appear she’s eligible to hold it, according to former federal officials interviewed by NPR.
Lake stopped calling himself that in mid-November — two days after the plaintiffs filed a motion challenging his right to do so.
The issue erupted again last month, when court documents showed Lake signed official documents in late January and early February as interim CEO. U.S. Justice Department lawyers told the judge in court filings that it was an accident in the agency’s document formatting.
“Lake is clearly ineligible to serve” as interim CEO under various sections of the relevant law, Lamberth wrote.
Because of all the layoffs that occurred under Lake, the agency has been unable to respond to even the most basic requests for financial information, according to an external auditor hired by the U.S. State Department’s inspector general to conduct a standard review. The agency said the external audit team did not have time to conduct a full audit and would be able to do so in the coming year.
Lamberth’s decision comes just a week after a year after Lake sought to lay off all full-time employees at Voice of America and the Cuba Broadcasting Bureau. She also decided to cut all federal funds for the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and Middle East broadcast networks.
This also happened over a weekend. Grant Turner, former acting CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media under President Trump, called it “Bloody Saturday.”
