A senior federal judge ordered Trump administration official Kari Lake to submit to questioning under oath in ongoing litigation over her efforts to effectively dismantle Voice of America despite Congressional mandates that it be maintained.
U.S District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth said Lake was "verging on contempt of court" for failing to comply with his repeated orders to make information available about her intentions for the future of the federally funded international broadcaster.
He said Lake and two aides had to testify by Sept. 15 and provide the court with detailed information she had, to date, withheld about Voice of America and its federal parent, the U.S. Agency for Global Media. One of the aides is Frank Wuco, a political appointee who helped to investigate Voice of America journalists for ideological bias at the end of President Trump's first term.
In a comment emailed to NPR, Lake rejected the judge's power in the case to have the final say over her actions.
"Time and again, we've seen district court judges overstep their authority," Lake told NPR. "It's wrong, but sadly, it's become the norm. The current case against USAGM is a great example of why we need to restore constitutional checks and balances."
Lake is being sued in a pair of related cases brought by Voice of America's director, several journalists, a senior executive of its parent agency, and assorted unions and press advocacy groups.
During Monday's two-hour court hearing, Lamberth blasted a U.S. Justice Department attorney for his handling of the defense, saying he was offering only vague assurances that the government had acted responsibly instead of substantive responses.
"That's just a hide-the-ball answer," Lamberth tersely told Michael Velchik, a senior counsel for the U.S. Justice Department who made his first court appearance in the case Monday.
Velchik cited the president's executive powers under the Constitution and said given the historic efforts to reduce the size of government, it was understandable that communicating precise information in real time would be difficult for Lake and the agency.
Lamberth repeatedly interrupted Velchick and Abigail Stout, another government attorney, over the actions that Lake and her team had taken without informing him. Among those actions: asking Congressional leaders for new funding for the agency, cycling out senior executives, suspending most of her workforce, seeking to fire the director of Voice of America and striking a deal to carry coverage from the right-wing TV outlet One America News Network.
Lamberth also took issue with the merits and means of many of those moves - for example, the deal with OANN. "I thought the idea of Voice of America was not to take sides," said Lamberth, a conservative Republican first appointed to the bench by President Ronald Reagan in 1987.
Lake arrived at the agency in February after years as a local news anchor in Phoenix and two failed bids for U.S. Senator and governor in Arizona on a pro-Trump platform. Since arriving in Washington, D.C., she has cited a March executive order from President Trump in slashing Voice of America and the network's parent agency, the U.S. Agency for Global Media, to the bone.
She reiterated that mandate in an appearance on the pro-Trump outlet Real America's Voice Monday night.
Lake fired hundreds of contract workers and placed hundreds of full-time employees on permanent paid leave, while informing them their jobs would soon end. Where Voice of America used to broadcast in 49 languages, it broadcasts in four today. Less than 10% of its journalists remain on the job. Voice of America's director, White House bureau chief and press freedoms editor, and the agency's chief strategy officer - all of whom are suing Lake - are among those on paid leave.
Lamberth has previously ruled that Lake has acted hastily, violating legal and constitutional safeguards.
An appellate court knocked down two of his orders but left intact a third: that Voice of America be brought back to full power so it can provide, as the law compels, "news which is consistently reliable and authoritative, accurate, objective, and comprehensive." He said simply having journalists on paid leave and on call to return temporarily, if needed, does not fill that mission.
Congress had stipulated that the U.S. Agency for Global Media has limited ability to shift around or reduce funding. Yet Lake also sought to kill funding for Voice of America's sister networks, such as Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and the Middle East Broadcast Networks. Other judicial rulings have required her to re-open the flow of payments for those networks, which are technically not-for-profits.
In court filings on behalf of Lake and the government, attorneys for the U.S. Justice Department cited Trump's Article II executive powers under the Constitution to say that he could make whatever decisions he wanted over federal agencies.
Lamberth has previously written that he believes Lake was simply putting people on leave to stall for time, hoping to run out the current fiscal year that ends Sept. 30 and to convince Congress not to fund the international broadcasters in coming years.
The U.S. government launched Voice of America in 1942 to broadcast accurate news reports into Nazi-controlled territory. During the Cold War, it flourished, along with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, as a show of soft power. It beamed news and music programs that advertised the appeal of American culture, but also modeled democratic discourse to people living under authoritarian regimes.
The plaintiffs who brought the case against the Trump administration say its actions violate Congress' intent and the black letter of the law.
On Monday, the judge seemed to embrace their thinking. He asked numerous times how Lake could be complying with federal law - even under Trump's order to do the minimum required by law - when it mandated broadcasts in Korean and there were no such Korean-language offerings. Velchik said he contested that interpretation - pointing to the law saying that Voice of America was intended to help fulfill foreign policy imperatives.
"Who gets to decide?" Velchik argued. "Not me. Not the plaintiffs. Not the court."
"Congress has a constitutionally provided role," Lamberth interjected.
And he repeatedly asked why he was not told of the plans to fire Voice of America Director Michael Abramowitz, how former U.S. Agency for Global Media Acting CEO Victor Morales was ousted, and who was currently serving as Voice of America's acting director in Abramowitz's absence.
The federal attorneys did not have answers. At one point, his response having been found wanting by Lamberth, Vilchik asked the judge if he should simply repeat his answer once more.
The plaintiffs argue the White House cannot order the firing of Voice of America Director Michael Abramowitz because such a move requires the approval of a super-majority of a bipartisan advisory panel for international broadcasting. Trump dismissed the members of the panel upon taking office and has not moved to appoint new members, who would require confirmation by the U.S. Senate. (U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio remains on the board by virtue of his primary job.)
Abramowitz's attorney, William Schultz, said that an effort to switch Abramowitz to a job overseeing a handful of staffers at a shortwave radio facility in North Carolina constituted a removal, whether or not he accepted the transfer - which he did not do.
Lamberth asked pointedly about Lake's position as well.
Lake, initially announced as a senior adviser at the agency, has styled herself as the agency's acting CEO since at least late July, as NPR reported earlier this month and she attested in a sworn declaration filed to the court.
Neither the White House, Lake, nor the agency have provided any documentation of her appointment to that acting position, despite specific and repeated requests from NPR. Under the terms of the relevant statute, Lake does not appear to be eligible to fill the chief executive position on an acting basis.
The permanent position requires Senate confirmation.
Under the law, an acting CEO must have been the acting chief deputy of the CEO before the vacancy arose, or confirmed to a different federal position by the U.S. Senate, or a senior agency executive for at least 90 days prior to the departure of the last Senate-confirmed CEO, Amanda Bennett. Bennett left on the day of Trump's inauguration in January.
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