Is Kari Lake a CEO? Her agency said so. The law suggests not : NPR
Trump administration advisor Kari Lake recently illustrated on the real vocal cable television channel, sought to dismantle Voice of America and his federal parent, the American agency for the world media. The agency recently called it its interim CEO. But it may not be legally eligible for the position.
The voice of real America / via YouTube / Kari Lake’s YouTube YouTube Page
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The voice of real America / via YouTube / Kari Lake’s YouTube YouTube Page
At the end of the business on Wednesday, the head of Trump administration Kari Lake has to explain to a federal judge how she intends to ensure that the voice of America fulfills her mandate from the congress to serve as a source of new, always reliable and authority despite forcing almost all the workforce.
Lake said that she was only doing her job by responding to President Trump’s wishes.
A key question remains: what is Lake’s real work?
Although it has experienced a series of changing titles involving the “main advisor” designation, an official agency file recently called Lake, the “acting managing director” of the Federal Parental of Voice of America, the American agency for the world’s media.
This is a position named presidential. NPR cannot find any public evidence that Trump has ever named Lake. And under American law, it does not seem to be eligible to occupy the post, according to former federal officials.
A government role must be “defined and documented”
Although the question of what Lake Emploi is likely to seem a little in weeds, it could have ramifications for the legality of the decisions it has taken to direct the agency.
“The government does not work on the whims of a Kari lake or even a Donald Trump,” said Norman Eisen, who was a special advisor for the ethics of the then Barack Obama.
Eisen, a lawyer who is the co-founder of the Democracy Defenders Fund, represents press defense groups in current proceedings against the lake on the actions she has taken at Voice of America.
“If you have a role in the government, it must be defined and documented,” explains Eisen. “Who knows if it is an auto-oint title? In one way or another, it raises the deepest legal issues.”
In a previous case, a federal judge canceled the directives tightening the asylum rules in 2020 after finding that the acting director of the acting director of citizenship and immigration services in the United States was illegal. The case contains echoes of the Lake situation.
During last week, NPR asked several times at the White House press office, the lake and another senior manager of the agency for the documentation of its current role there. None responded. The White House personnel management office has returned an NPR question looking for more information to the agency.
“It’s important to know it-is she really CEO? How did she get there?” Grant Turner, who was Managing Director of the US Agency for the World Media (USAGM) during Trump’s first term, told NPR. “If she does not have this authority – and she claims to have authority – then it’s really invalid. There are so many things that could come back haunt Kari Lake and USAGM.”
“Maybe she just wants to have a cool title to signal,” said Turner, “but if she really doesn’t have a real legal authority to have this title, then they really go problems.”
Shortly that Lake is eligible to be an acting CEO
Lake is a former local presenter from News News News who has twice a candidate Maga unsuccessful for the Senator and the Governor in Arizona. She is a warrior of the cable news for Trump’s priorities, in particular by attacking the press, calling for more strict laws against illegal immigration and stimulating her lies on electoral fraud.
After winning the presidential election last fall, Trump said that he wanted to call him as director of the voice of America. As under federal law, he does not have the power to do so unilaterally, Trump made her a main advisor and gave her the responsibility to supervise the agency. Trump also rejected members of a government advisory council which was created by the Congress to supervise international networks. He did not appoint any replacements, which would need confirmation from the American Senate.
In March, Lake appointed a senior agency official, Victor Morales, to be the acting managing director; In early July, according to two people with knowledge, she was raised to be assistant CEO but continued to manage the agency. (They spoke under the cover of anonymity due to fears of professional repercussions.) She then forced morals at the end of July, that is to say at that time that she began to be called acting CEO inside and outside the agency considerably reduced.
The international broadcaster funded by the federal government has – until this year – disseminate news in 49 languages, reaching land where a free press is either under the constraint of the authorities or not financially viable. After having broken the contracts of hundreds of journalists from Voice of America and put hundreds of permanent employees on paid leave, the network is at four linguistic services.
Under the law, a person from the CEO of the acting agency had to be previously confirmed to another position by the US Senate, acted as the main director of the CEO for at least 90 days of the past year or be a senior official of the non -partisan agency. As an advisor, Lake would have been a policy and not a framework. The departure of the former CEO of the Amanda Bennett agency in January preceded the apparent altitude of Lake to the assistant CEO of at least five months.
“I do not think she qualifies,” explains Richard Painter, chief lawyer for the ethics of the White House under President George W. Bush.
LAKE identified as interim CEO on the appearance of television and in an official document
However, this is how the right -wing cable channel Real America’s Voice identified the lake in a segment of July 31 that it published on Sunday on its own YouTube page.
“Join me now is the acting CEO of the American agency for the world media. Kari Lake, it’s always a pleasure when you come,” said Brian Glenn. “You have a major role on VOA. You have surveillance. You have made some changes. Put on us.”
A legend under the lake showed the same title throughout the segment.
The next day, on August 1, the agency itself described it as “acting chief executive from the USAGM” twice in a letter to the director of Voice of America Michael Abramowitz him that he intended to dismiss him. USAGM’s main advisor John Zadrozny quoted Lake as “the decisive officer” to whom Abramowitz could contest the decision.
Abramowitz rather disputed his dismissal provided for as illegal in the court documents submitted to the American judge Royce C. Lamberth. The judge oversees a group of proceedings linked against the lake and the government filed by Abramowitz as well as other journalists from the Voice of America, an official of the agency, unions and press defense groups. (Abramowitz’s lawyer refused to comment.)
Under the federal law, the director of the voice of America “can only be appointed or deleted if such an action has been approved by a majority vote” of the Advisory Council.
In a motion in response, lawyers from the United States Ministry wrote that the administration had the power to reject Abramowitz for having previously refused to accept a transfer to a short -wave radio installation in North Carolina from the network headquarters in Washington, DC, DC
The lawyers cited article II of the Constitution, which gives the president control of the executive power of the federal government.
The government could rely on the same reason to justify the lake as the acting CEO, if the agency continues to affirm that it occupies this job.
However, the CEO position also requires a appointment by the president and the confirmation of the American Senate.
“They make life much more complicated for themselves,” explains Painter, the former lawyer for the White House. “This would create an additional argument for anyone she has dismissed or any other act in which she has initiated, in particular by concluding contracts.”
A rotating door of chief chiefs while the lake supervises the agency
President CEO Joe Biden, Amanda Bennett, resigned on the day of Trump’s second inauguration in January.
Trump’s first announced choice to manage the agency, the critic of the conservative media L. Brent Bozell III, has never taken office, because the administration clearly indicated that it would try to dismantle the networks and the agency. (Bozell was rather nominated to be Trump’s ambassador to South Africa.)
Initially, the agency’s financial director, novel Napoli, was acting managing director, followed by Morales in March.
Until the end of July, the title of Lake was “principal advisor” – however, as NPR previously reported, it was variously rendered as the main advisor for the administration, for the agency, for the chief of the agency (a position that the agency has not currently) and, in a legal file at the end of June, “main CEO advisor”.
On Wednesday, the government’s legal deposits in response to the request of judge Lamberth for more information on the lake on her plans for Voice of America could shed light on the work she has.
