Judge freezes Trump plan to dismantle Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

A federal judge has temporarily barred the U.S. Agency for Global Media and Kari Lake, President Trump’s senior adviser at the agency, from moving ahead with plans to cut off all federal funds to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

The international network is in court in Washington, D.C., seeking a permanent reversal of Lake’s orders to kill all funding for it and to wind down all operations, despite a congressional appropriation of $142 million for the network in the current fiscal year.

The White House had ordered the U.S. Agency for Global Media to reduce its operations solely to what’s required by law.

The agency operates Voice of America and distributes money appropriated by Congress to nonprofit international networks, including Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Though Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is a private broadcaster, it is wholly dependent on federal funds.

The network argued the agency’s effort to shut it down is unconstitutional. In his ruling on Tuesday, the judge presiding over the case suggested he found that argument compelling.

“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,” U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth, a Reagan appointee, wrote. “The Court concludes, in keeping with Congress’s longstanding determination, that the continued operation of RFE/RL is in the public interest.”

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which launched in 1950 in the early years of the Cold War, provides reporting in 27 languages to serve audiences in 23 countries. The network says its work is heard, read and watched by 47 million people every week.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalists have been jailed by Iran, Russia and other autocratic regimes. Like other international broadcasters funded by the U.S. government, the mission is to provide fair news coverage in areas where a free press is not robust enough to operate, or is repressed by authorities.

Their work represents a form of U.S. soft power, modeling how a democratic society operates by incorporating dissent from the official government line and unwelcome developments into reporting.

Trump’s associates have assailed Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which have riled Russian President Vladimir Putin and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán — both of whom have established a warm rapport with Trump.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Chief Executive Steve Capus, who earlier told NPR that the loss of funds would compel “drastic” measures, hailed the judge’s order.

“This 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,” Capus said in a statement released to the press. “For 75 years, 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.”

The network has continued its work during the legal fight. Capus told NPR last week that it had been operating off its savings.

Lake and USAGM did not reply to NPR’s request for comment about the ruling; nor have they replied more broadly about this litigation and her drive to dismantle the networks the agency oversees.

“They want us to continue pumping in money,” Lake recently told former Trump political strategist Steve Bannon on his podcast. “The president is in total control of the executive branch. He’s exerting his power, and they don’t like it. We are going to fight these lawsuits. And we think we are in the right here.”

Courts full of challenges to White House actions

The drive to cut back the agency coincides with twin priorities of the Trump administration: to slash government programs and to delegitimize the legacy press as an independent check holding him accountable. The courts have been full of challenges to the White House’s actions.

Lamberth’s ruling is both a respite for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, at least for the moment, and a possible sign of things to come, as Lake and the agency also ordered a shutdown of its sister organizations: Radio Free Asia, the Middle East Broadcasting Networks and the Open Technology Fund. The tech fund has already filed suit in Washington, D.C., seeking the restoration of its funding too. Radio Free Asia has indicated it’s exploring litigation.

And six Voice of America journalists, a USAGM staffer and a coalition of government unions and press advocacy groups have filed suit in federal court in Manhattan to restore the staff to that network. Already — in a day dubbed “Bloody Saturday” by USAGM’s former chief financial officer — the agency has placed its full-time staff on indefinite paid leave and terminated all contractors.

Right before Monday’s hearing on the temporary restraining order, the agency agreed to one demand: It said it would disburse $7.5 million to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that was past due for the first two weeks of March.

In the hearing, Lamberth sounded deeply skeptical of the Justice Department’s argument that USAGM was not required to distribute money in the way that Congress determined should be spent.

Why have Congress appropriate money at all? Lamberth asked.

On Tuesday, he ruled that Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty stood a strong chance of prevailing on its broader argument.

“Here, the ‘explanation” offered by USAGM can scarcely be characterized as an explanation: it amounted to one line in the termination letter stating that ‘the award no longer effectuates agency priorities’,” Lamberth wrote in his ruling. “This conclusory statement, unsupported by any facts or reasoning, is not a ‘satisfactory explanation’ and offers no ‘rational connection between the facts found and the choices made.'”

The judge signaled he intended to rule promptly on the network’s broader aim seeking the full restoration of funds.