Kari Lake Faces Restraining Order As Judge Rules Cancelation of Funding For Radio Free Europe Is Unlawful

Kari Lake and the Trump administration are facing a restraining order after a federal judge ruled that the cancellation of funding for Radio Free Europe is unlawful.

Concretely, U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth said that the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) can't shut down the broadcaster "with one sentence of reasoning offering virtually no explanation" even "if the President have told them so."

The ruling is yet another legal challenge to the Trump administration's decision to shut down Voice of America, which dates to World War II as a source of objective news, often beamed into authoritarian countries.

Funded by Congress, it is protected by a charter that guarantees its product pass muster for journalistic rigor. VOA and its sister networks practice a form of soft diplomacy, telling stories about democracy in countries where press freedom is limited or nonexistent.

The Trump administration, and its allies, have been vocal about their opposition to VOA. In an interview with Newsmax earlier this week, Lake described VOA as "like having a rotten fish and trying to find a portion that you can eat."

In a post on X, she said the Agency for Global Media is "a giant rot and burden to the American taxpayer— a national security risk for the nation— and irretrievably broken. While there are bright spots within the agency with personnel who are talented and dedicated public servants, this is the exception rather than the rule."

In this context, a group of VOA journalists sued the administration and Kari Lake for shutting down the media network. The lawsuit was filed in the Southern District of New York, and asked a federal judge to restore the services President Donald Trump shut down in an executive order issued earlier this month.

The journalists say that the government's acts violate their First Amendment rights on free speech grounds and usurp the U.S. Congress's control of the power of the federal purse.

The lead plaintiffs include Patsy Widakuswara, until recently VOA's White House bureau chief and Jessica Jerreat, its press freedom editor. For other journalists sued anonymously as John Does. Kathryn Neeper, the director of strategy and performance assessment at USAGM, is also named plaintiff.