Federal Judge Demands Explanation from Kari Lake over Illegal Dismissal of Voice of America Director Amidst Agency Reforms

Tensions surrounding the future direction of Voice of America (VOA) are escalating, with a federal judge pressing for clarification from Kari Lake, who oversees its federal parent organization on behalf of the Trump administration.

On Monday, Michael Abramowitz, director of the government-funded international broadcaster, filed legal documents alleging that top officials at the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) are attempting to unlawfully terminate his employment. Abramowitz is among a group of journalists pursuing litigation against the administration.

In newly submitted court filings on Tuesday, Department of Justice lawyers argued that the president holds nearly unrestricted authority over appointments within the executive branch, including USAGM. This assertion marks the first time such extensive powers have been claimed in this case, although related arguments have been made in litigation concerning the administration’s actions elsewhere in the executive branch.

Judge Royce C. Lamberth, who is presiding over Abramowitz’s lawsuit and related cases, has expressed concerns about non-compliance with his earlier order mandating that VOA adhere to its congressionally assigned role of providing reliable news worldwide.

In an order dated July 30, Lamberth criticized Lake and the government for failing to disclose planned mass layoffs or the “significant personnel decision” of removing Abramowitz as director and reassigning him to a shortwave radio facility in Greenville, North Carolina from VOA’s Washington D.C. headquarters. Lamberth noted Lake’s statement on the right-wing investigative site Just the News: “I’m working to eliminate the agency, and it’s been a big job, but we’re working hard at it.”

Lake later told NPR that Lamberth was “another example of a federal judiciary that is activist and out of control.”

On August 1, John Zadrozny, a senior advisor to USAGM, informed Abramowitz that he would be dismissed for refusing the proposed reassignment, which involved assuming the role of chief administrative officer at the Greenville facility. The letter stated that Lake would have final say in the decision. Neither Zadrozny nor Lake responded to NPR’s requests for comment.

“I think it’s tragic,” former VOA Director David Ensor told NPR. “Michael is a highly experienced and talented journalist and leader of relatively large organizations—he is not an engineer. This idea that he should be sent to an engineering facility for helping shortwave radio around the world doesn’t make any sense at all.”

“What it’s really about — obviously everybody understands this — is trying to get rid of Mike Abramowitz as part of the process of trying to get rid of Voice of America.”

The Greenville facility currently employs just three full-time staff members, according to Kate Neeper, VOA’s chief strategy officer. Like Abramowitz, Neeper is currently on paid leave and is part of the group of employees, unions, and journalism advocacy organizations suing the agency and Lake. Almost all contractors have had their employment terminated; nearly all full-time employees were put on paid leave and informed that their positions would be eliminated.

VOA currently employs 72 full-time staff members, according to government lawyers. Before the Trump administration’s attempts to dismantle it, VOA had nearly 1,300 permanent and contract employees, Abramowitz’s civil complaint against the government states. It has decreased from offering services in 49 languages to four.

In the final months of Trump’s first term, officials at USAGM initiated a wave of firings, suspensions, and internal investigations of VOA journalists for alleged bias. A federal judge found illegal and unconstitutional acts; an inspector general found “waste or gross waste” by Trump-appointed CEO Michael Pack; and investigators for the Office of Special Counsel found abuses of power and violations of legal protections of the editorial independence of VOA’s newsroom.

Congress passed a law in early January 2021 requiring that a majority of a bipartisan advisory board vote for the removal of the head of VOA or its sister networks.

Upon resuming office this year, Trump dismissed the members of the board, and it has not been reconstituted. And Lake has resumed her assault on VOA. Given the 2021 law, it is unclear whether Lake possesses the statutory power to dismiss Abramowitz without explicit backing from that panel, which currently lacks members.

“As a bipartisan body with diverse perspectives, we have varied views about the ideal structure of U.S. international broadcasting and necessary reforms, but we are united in our belief in U.S. international broadcasting’s importance to our national security,” a joint statement sent to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs in late June by all but one of the dismissed advisory board members stated. “We urge Congress to fulfill its constitutional responsibilities and prevent the reckless dismantling of these important institutions that have advanced American interests for so long.”

The Justice Department’s legal team, led by Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate, argued in papers filed on Tuesday that the 2021 law passed by Congress was unconstitutional. “The removal power is vested in the Chief Executive Officer as the head of the Agency acting on the President’s behalf—not the Advisory Board,” the department wrote.

Lake did not respond to NPR’s queries about when she assumed the title of acting chief executive at USAGM — a title first seen publicly in Abramowitz’s filings on Monday.

A two-time unsuccessful MAGA candidate for statewide office in Arizona, Lake has emerged as one of Trump’s most vocal advocates, denouncing VOA and other federally funded international broadcasters on Fox News, Newsmax, and other right-wing media outlets. She has also been eager to take up fights against other media outlets, including CBS, NPR, and ABC.

Since her appointment as senior advisor to the agency in late February, she has adopted a series of job titles.

Lake described herself in an early March note to staff as “the senior advisor for the administration.”

In May, as she announced that she had struck a deal with the far-right network OAN to obtain rights to use its content and coverage on VOA without charge, Lake called herself the senior advisor to the agency’s chief operating officer. The agency does not have a chief operating officer, and it has been lacking one in recent years, according to Neeper, the chief strategy officer, and others. Lake again referred to herself as senior advisor to the COO in June.

In early July, the agency complied with a White House request that Lake become the deputy CEO, according to two sources familiar with the request. They spoke on condition of anonymity due to fears of professional repercussions. Later that month, Lake filed a declaration with the court listing her title as “senior advisor to the acting CEO.” The acting CEO, a veteran VOA and agency staffer named Victor Morales, had been removed by late July.

The August 1 memo to Abramowitz detailing the agency’s plans to terminate him refers to Lake as “Acting Chief Executive Officer of USAGM.” It is unclear through what process she was appointed to that role.

Lake and the Trump administration won an appellate court ruling earlier this summer that overturned some of Judge Lamberth’s rulings against her actions at the agency. The requirement that VOA “serve as a consistently reliable and authoritative source of news” survived the administration’s appeal.

In his July 30 order, Lamberth demanded that Lake and the government submit a comprehensive account of her activities at the agency and plans for VOA by next Wednesday evening.