A federal judge on Monday threatened to hold Kari Lake, a Trump loyalist who presided over effectively shutting down Voice of America, in contempt for disobeying his order to restore programming at the federally funded news organization.
On Monday, the judge, Royce C. Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, sought details on Trump officials’ compliance with his April order to restore V.O.A.’s programming so that it would “serve as a consistently reliable and authoritative source of news.” The broadcaster provided independent reporting to countries with limited press freedom.
But government lawyers frustrated the judge, a Reagan appointee, with what he deemed evasive and incomplete answers. He said that Ms. Lake, who was not in the courtroom, “clearly hasn’t complied with my order,” adding, “On the face of it, she’s on the verge of contempt.”
“Why is she stonewalling me?” Judge Lamberth asked.
Voice of America, which ran a 24-hour news broadcast in 49 languages to 360 million people every week, has been reduced to bare bones since President Trump effectively ordered its shutdown in March.
In April, Judge Lamberth held that in throttling the news outlet, the Trump administration had likely violated the Constitution as well as laws governing spending of federal funds. He also noted that the International Broadcasting Act mandates continued operations of federally funded media networks.
Voice of America now broadcasts news in only four languages for about an hour a day. The administration put most of its employees on paid leave and moved to lay off around 1,300 journalists and support staff at the agency.
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