Voice of America employees have spent a full year on paid administrative leave while President Donald Trump’s administration has tried to shrink the international broadcaster to its “statutory minimum.” That extended absence is coming to an end.
A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the wind-down of operations at the U.S. Agency for Global Media, VOA’s parent, is unlawful and ordered the agency to bring more than 1,000 employees back to work.
U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth ruled that the near-total shutdown of USAGM, which oversees VOA and funds several international broadcasters such as Radio Free Asia, violated federal administrative law. He ordered the full-time employees to return to work by March 23 and told the agency to resume international broadcasting, which it has mostly abandoned during the past year — save for some airing in languages such as Farsi.
Lamberth, a Ronald Reagan appointee, criticized the government’s “flagrant and nearly year-long refusal” to uphold statutory requirements set by Congress and lambasted Kari Lake, the Trump official who oversaw the dismantling of the agency. Lamberth recently ruled that Lake has been running the agency illegally. “The defendants’ persistent omission and withholding of key information in this case has been a Hallmark production in bad faith,” he wrote of Lake and the government in a footnote.
The ruling comes in two separate-but-intertwined lawsuits: one filed by VOA Director Michael Abramowitz, a former Washington Post reporter, and another filed by a group of employees against the government.
In a statement, plaintiffs in the latter group — Patsy Widakuswara, Jessica Jerreat and Kate Neeper — hailed Lamberth’s ruling as a “monumental decision.”
“We are eager to begin repairing the damage Kari Lake has inflicted on our agency and our colleagues, to return to our congressional mandate, and to rebuild the trust of the global audience we have been unable to serve for the past year,” they wrote.
Abramowitz said in a statement that he was “thrilled” with the ruling. “Voice of America has never been more needed,” he said. “I am grateful for the resilience and dedication of VOA’s amazing workforce.”
The ruling vacates a three-page memorandum signed by USAGM officials last March that retained a mere 68 positions at the agency and eliminated all other roles.
Representatives for USAGM and the Justice Department did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
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