A federal judge in Washington ruled that Kari Lake did not have lawful authority to exercise the powers of the U.S. Agency for Global Media’s chief executive, declaring key actions taken under her direction—including mass leave and layoffs affecting Voice of America—void. The decision is the latest court setback for the Trump administration’s effort to scale back the government-funded international broadcaster.
U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth ruled that Kari Lake unlawfully exercised sweeping powers at the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), the federal agency that oversees Voice of America (VOA) and other U.S.-funded international broadcasters.
In a March 7, 2026, opinion, Lamberth granted summary judgment to a group of agency employees led by VOA White House bureau chief Patsy Widakuswara, finding that the delegations used to elevate Lake into a chief-executive role violated the Constitution’s appointments requirements and federal vacancies law, according to The Washington Post.
The ruling targets actions Lake took while describing herself as acting CEO or deputy CEO, including moves that sidelined large parts of VOA’s workforce and disrupted operations. Separate litigation has also challenged the administration’s broader effort to curtail USAGM’s work after President Donald Trump signed a March 14, 2025, executive order directing certain agencies—including USAGM—to eliminate non-statutory functions and reduce statutory operations and staffing to the “minimum presence and function required by law,” language reflected in the order and White House materials.
The administration’s actions triggered a series of court fights over whether USAGM can scale back broadcasting and staffing without running afoul of statutory obligations set by Congress. In an April 22, 2025, ruling in one of the cases, Lamberth blocked efforts that had effectively forced VOA to cease operations, and he ordered steps to restore VOA as well as Radio Free Asia and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks while the lawsuits proceeded, according to The Associated Press.
Lake has publicly defended cuts and criticized Lamberth, describing him as an “activist judge” and vowing to appeal adverse rulings, according to reporting by WTOP and other outlets.
Lake also moved to end USAGM’s contracts with major wire services including The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse, a decision AP reported was announced as a cost-saving measure. In May 2025, Axios reported Lake announced a content deal with One America News Network to provide material to USAGM outlets.
VOA, created during World War II, has long described its mission as providing news to audiences abroad, particularly in places with limited press freedom. USAGM has previously cited a global weekly audience of more than 361 million for VOA across 49 languages, a figure also referenced by press-freedom advocates.
Some details circulating about the most recent ruling—such as an order requiring exactly 1,042 VOA full-time employees to return to work by a specific Monday, specific budget figures said to have been appropriated “this year,” or claims about contractors being kept off the job pending labor-court review—could not be confirmed from the provided NPR source, and were not corroborated by the additional major outlets reviewed in reporting on the March 2026 decision.
USAGM and VOA did not immediately respond to requests for comment in some of the cited coverage.
