A plan to bring back Voice of America’s employees, who have largely been sidelined by the Trump administration for a year, was halted late Tuesday.
A three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit stayed part of a March ruling by U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth that would have sent 1,000 staffers back to work. However, the panel didn’t touch most of the ruling, in which the judge found that a plan by Trump administration official Kari Lake to wind down the global broadcasting agency to its “statutory minimum” was illegal.
The back-to-work order is on pause until the appeals panel, which consists of judges appointed by Donald Trump, George H.W. Bush and Barack Obama, can rule on the merits of the government’s appeal.
Alex Nicoll, a spokesman for the U.S. Agency for Global Media, VOA’s parent agency, said the agency is “encouraged” by the decision. “This decision ensures USAGM’s ability to continue operations and advance President Trump’s agenda without disruption as the legal process moves forward.”
“We always knew the road would be long and difficult,” Voice of America plaintiffs Patsy Widakuswara, Jessica Jerreat and Kate Neeper wrote in a statement. “This development will not deter us from our fight to restore VOA’s global operations and to broadcast journalism, not propaganda.”
President Donald Trump issued an executive order last March ordering that USAGM be shrunk to its “minimum presence and function required by law.” Lake, the agency official in charge, then placed more than 1,000 employees on paid administrative leave, where they’ve mostly remained to this day, while cutting loose hundreds of contractors. Lake has brought back some language services, including Mandarin, Dari, Pashto and Farsi, the latter of which has stirred controversy for its coverage during the outbreak of protests in Iran. A separate group of VOA employees sued last month, alleging Lake had repeatedly breached the broadcaster’s editorial fire wall that insulates it from government interference.
Lake has repeatedly feuded with Lamberth, calling the 82-year-old Ronald Reagan appointee an “activist” judge, while Lamberth has threatened to hold Lake in contempt of court for noncooperation. Lamberth ruled in March that Lake served illegally as USAGM’s head and nullified plans to terminate the employees long on paid administrative leave.
Those employees will remain in limbo for the time being.
Under Lamberth’s initial ruling, the agency was given until March 23 to return all staffers to work. Following protest by the government, which said it had the capacity to only reinstate 70 employees per week, Lamberth reconsidered, saying the government must file a status report with a new plan to reinstate staffers by the end of the day on April 1.
VOA Director Michael Abramowitz, who has also been on administrative leave and sued the agency in a separate lawsuit, urged the government to continue to restore the broadcaster.
“USAGM told Judge Lamberth that it has developed a plan to bring the VOA employees on administrative leave back to work over the next two months,” Abramowitz said. “It is very much in the national interest that the agency continues to implement its plan to restore Voice of America.”
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