A federal judge said Wednesday that it was likely that the Trump administration had violated his April order mandating a restoration of news programming at Voice of America, a federally funded news organization that provided independent reporting to countries with limited press freedom.
The judge, Royce C. Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, excoriated Trump officials for failing to show that they had been abiding by his ruling and ordered the government to produce detailed evidence that it was doing so, saying Voice of America was required by law to continue broadcasting news.
“The Court concludes that judicial intervention is needed to ensure the defendants’ compliance with the preliminary injunction,” Judge Lamberth wrote, referring to his April order that the news group resume broadcasting so that Voice of America “fulfills its statutory mandate.”
The judge added that Trump officials “appear to be violating numerous statutory provisions” and have been “providing misleading and contradictory information.” He said the government had provided the court with seemingly conflicting information about one of Voice of America’s radio transmitting stations, accusing it of “flip-flopping” in “sworn declarations.”
The administration has shut down nearly all news programming at Voice of America and put most employees on paid leave since March, when President Trump signed an executive order that effectively called for its dismantling.
In April, Judge Lamberth ordered the Trump administration to restore news programming and bring back reporters, editors and support staff members at Voice of America. After the government appealed, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit temporarily reversed Judge Lamberth’s order on hiring decisions while it reviewed the case but left in place his ruling on Voice of America’s continued news programming.
But the Trump administration did not restore the news broadcasting to a level comparable to Voice of America’s round-the-clock coverage, which reached 360 million people every week in 49 languages before March. In June, Trump officials tried — and failed — to lay off nearly all staff members at Voice of America, whose head count was about 1,300 before March.
Despite Judge Lamberth’s order, administration officials have insisted that Voice of America is operating at its legal minimum, while broadcasting less than an hour each day for nearly all of its foreign language services.
On Wednesday, Judge Lamberth rejected that argument. He seemed particularly concerned with the Trump administration’s likely violations of laws that required certain levels of broadcasting in various languages and countries, including North Korea and Iran. He used languages like “glaringly” and “shockingly” to describe what he saw as insufficient actions from the Trump administration to revive news programming at Voice of America.
He also scolded the government for wasting taxpayer dollars by continuing to pay Voice of America employees who had been put on paid leave. Judge Lamberth pointed out that the administration had failed to explain how it had spent $137 million in “regional broadcasting operations” as it “eliminated” nearly all programming in foreign languages, saying the money was likely to have gone to pay journalists’ salaries after the administration botched efforts to fire them.
“When Congress appropriated $260 million to V.O.A.,” he wrote, referring to the news group’s budget for fiscal 2025, “it did not anticipate that such a significant sum of taxpayer funds would be used to pay employees to sit at home for months on end, making no contribution to V.O.A.’s statutory mandate.”
He added, “The legal term for that is ‘waste,’ and it is precisely what federal appropriation law aims to avoid.”
Judge Lamberth also found troubling the public statements of Kari Lake, a fierce Trump ally and the senior adviser at Voice of America’s parent agency, the U.S. Agency for Global Media, who is leading the efforts to shut down the news group. Ms. Lake has repeatedly said in interviews with right-leaning news outlets that she is intent on “eliminating” Voice of America because she saw it as so biased and wasteful that it was “unsalvageable.”
“Although the defendants represent to this Court that they intend to operate V.O.A. in accordance with its statutory mandate,” he said, “defendants’ statements outside the courtroom indicate otherwise.”
Ms. Lake, the senior adviser at the parent agency, United States Agency for Global Media, accused Judge Lamberth, a Reagan appointee, of being an activist aiming to stop Mr. Trump’s agenda.
“Today’s decision by Judge Lamberth is yet another example of a federal judiciary that is activist and out of control,” she said in an emailed statement. The global media agency “is going to continue to adhere to the Constitution, follow existing federal law and serve President Trump’s Executive Branch agenda.”
Minho Kim covers breaking news and climate change for The Times. He is based in Washington.
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