A day after a federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to cut off all federal funds to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the president’s senior adviser at the agency that oversees the broadcaster withdrew the cancellation of the network’s grants.
In a letter to RFE/RL chief executive Steve Capus, Kari Lake wrote that the U.S. Agency for Global Media had “rescinded” the previous letter “terminating your grant agreement” and that Radio Free Europe would continue to receive federal funds for the time being.
“This rescission is without prejudice to USAGM’s authority to terminate the grant at a later date if USAGM were to determine that such a termination was appropriate under the applicable law,” Lake added.
In addition to the letter, Lake also filed a response in RFE/RL’s lawsuit notifying the court that the grant termination had been withdrawn, seeking to end the legal standoff with the broadcaster.
“Plaintiff has secured the primary relief — withdrawing the termination of its grant agreement — that it requested in the complaint,” the response stated. “Now that Plaintiff has received the relief, Defendants’ position is that this matter is now moot. At a minimum, in light of the reinstatement of Plaintiff’s grant, there is certainly no ongoing ‘certain and great’ irreparable harm that could justify injunctive relief.”
Earlier this week, U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth — a Reagan appointee — granted a temporary restraining order to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which is looking to reverse Lake’s orders to shut off all funding to the international broadcaster. The grant termination came after President Donald Trump ordered the USAGM to eliminate its workforce and activities not required by law.
In its lawsuit, RFE/RL — a private broadcaster that gets all of its funds from the federal government — claimed the agency’s efforts to shutter the network were unconstitutional. In his opinion that granted the restraining order on Tuesday, Lamberth signaled agreement with the plaintiffs.
“The leadership of USAGM cannot, with one sentence of reasoning offering virtually no explanation, force RFE/RL to shut down — even if the President has told them to do so,” he wrote. “The Court concludes, in keeping with Congress’s longstanding determination, that the continued operation of RFE/RL is in the public interest.”
Capus said that Lamberth’s Tuesday ruling “further sends a strong message to our journalists around the world: Their mission as designed by Congress is a worthy and valuable one and should continue.” He also noted that “RFE/RL has been closely aligned with American national security interests by fighting censorship and propaganda in many of the world’s most repressive societies.”
Besides this case, the Trump administration faces several other legal fights over its attempted dismantling of USAGM, which operated Voice of America and several other nonprofit international broadcasters, including Radio Free Asia, the Middle East Broadcasting Networks, and the Open Technology Fund.
After all of the VOA staff were placed on indefinite leave or terminated while the network was essentially shut down, several Voice of America journalists — along with multiple unions and the press advocacy group Reporters Without Borders — filed a lawsuit last week claiming Trump’s orders were illegal and unconstitutional.
“The long-term consequences of silencing VOA will reverberate globally, eroding the influence and moral authority of the United States,” VOA chief national correspondent Steve Herman — who had been sidelined by the administration over supposedly anti-Trump social media posts — said at a press conference this week.
That suit was followed by another complaint this week by Voice of America Director Michael Abramowitz, who is also asking a federal judge to reverse the administration’s decision to fire VOA employees.
Trump’s efforts to shutter Voice of America and Radio Free Europe — which he has long been critical of — have been met with criticism that the president is essentially giving a gift to authoritarians, some of whom Trump has expressed sympathy towards.
“Autocrats know now, as they did in 1989, that they must control the information environment. America should challenge those efforts with the powerful voices we have and, at the very least, not put out of business one of our most valuable instruments of global influence,” former Radio Free Europe director of research Ronald H. Linden declared in a recent op-ed.
