The Justice Department has embarked on a new effort to remove three board members, including Sony’s Tom Rothman, from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
In April, Trump’s White House gave notice to Rothman, Laura Ross and Diane Kaplan that they were being fired from the board. The CPB, the corporation set up by Congress to distribute funds to public media, then sued, contending that the president was acting outside his authority.
Last month, a federal judge, Randolph Moss, turned down the CPB’s request to immediately block Trump’s firings. But the judge also cautioned that Trump still would not be able to wrest control of the board, and also noted that the corporation had recently changed its bylaws that restricts the president’s actions.
In the complaint, filed on Tuesday, the Justice Department argued that the three board members “havecontinued to usurp the office of board member of the CPB, including by participating in boardmeetings, voting on resolutions and other business that comes before the board, and presentingthemselves to the public as board members. All of this is manifestly unlawful.” The three board members are named as defendants.
The DOJ challenged the change in the CPB bylaws, noting that it was made on May 15, while the president informed them of their removal on April 28.
“Therefore, even if that amendment were duly adopted and lawful, it could not have affected the validity of the President’s removal of Defendants on April 28, 2025, because it was not then in effect. In other words, Defendants were lawfully removed from the CPB Board long before the Board purportedly amended the bylaws,” the government’s attorneys wrote. They also contend that the three board members were “usurping their positions” by participating in the meeting to adopt the change in by laws.
A CPB spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment.
The Senate is expected to vote this week on a package that would rescind $1.1 billion in federal funding already allocated to the CPB over the next two years. Trump has threatened to withhold support for lawmakers if they do not vote for the cuts.
The DOJ complaint seeks a court declaration that the three board members are no longer serving, as well as declaring that their actions at CPB since April 28 are null and void.
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