WASHINGTON (AP) – A federal judge agreed Monday It will be temporarily stopped The Trump administration’s plan to eliminate hundreds of jobs at agencies that oversee American voices, a government-funded broadcaster established during World War II to counter Nazi propaganda.
US District Judge Lois Lambers in Washington, DC, has determined that the US global media agency cannot implement it. Reducing power It will eliminate 532 full-time government employees on Tuesday. These employees represent most of the remaining staff.
Kari Lake, the agency’s acting CEO, announced in late August that employment cuts would be effective. However, the judge’s decision will retain the status quo of the agency until it stops power reductions in order to control the plaintiff’s fundamental move.
Lambers previously ruled that President Donald Trump’s Republican administration must restore VOA programming to a level worthy of its legal mission to “act as a consistently reliable and authoritative source of news.” He too Blocked Lake From removing Michael Abramowitz as VOA director.
The judge cites a “disrespectful” lawsuit from the administration against the court
Lamberth has accused the administration of showing “disorientation” to the court in response to his previous order to prepare information about the Voice of America plan. He said the agency began work hours after a hearing last month when government lawyers said it was a forced cut or the RIF was just a possibility.
“Obfuscation of the defendant’s request for information regarding whether the RIF program, tailored to the preliminary injunction, wasted valuable judicial time and resources and easily supported the light-empt procedure,” Lambers wrote.
However, he said he would not start the light emptying process himself as the plaintiff has not yet asked for it.
“However, (the court) respect for the plaintiff in regards to further cases should not be mistaken for tolerance in the defendant’s terrible past conduct,” he added.
Employees who sued to block the dismantling of American voices alleged that the planned cuts would hinder the judge’s ability to enforce the injunction issued in April. “Therefore, this court must maintain the status quo while the parties litigate compliance.” Their lawyer wrote.
Government lawyers accused the plaintiffs of trying to reduce the agency’s business. “Prohibiting power reduction would be a completely overloaded and inappropriate treatment.” They wrote.
Senior Judge Lamberth was appointed to the bench in 1987 by Republican President Ronald Reagan.
Can media agents continue to perform their “legal duties”?
The US global media institutions include Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, Middle East Broadcasting Network, and Radio Marti, which lights Spanish news in Cuba. The network, which reaches an estimated 427 million people, has led to the Cold War and is part of a network of government-funded organizations that aims to expand our influence and combat authoritarianism.
Congress had to allocate $875 million to agents for fiscal year 2025 and spend $260 million in funds on VOA.
In March, Trump said, “We signed an executive order requested by the agency to reduce statutory functions and related staff to the minimum presence and function required by law. A day later, the VOA stopped broadcasting for the first time in 83 years. The agency placed almost all of its employees on administrative leave.
In announcing the cuts in work on social media last month, Lake said the agency “is likely to continue to carry out its legal duties and improve its ability to function.”
“We look forward to taking additional steps in the coming months to improve the functionality of our very broken agency and ensure that American voices are heard overseas where it matters most,” she writes.
Plaintiff’s lawyer Georgina Yomans argued Monday that the cuts would solidify the institution’s programming at an inadequate level that was not complying with the judge’s order. Yeomans said it is unclear who is making the important decisions, such as who should eliminate who.
“We simply don’t know,” she said.
