Left: Kari Lake addressing the audience on the second day of the Republican National Convention, Tuesday, July 16, 2024, in Milwaukee (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite). Right: President Donald Trump during a press briefing at the White House in Washington on February 27, 2025 (Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Sipa USA; via AP Images).
A seasoned federal judge has intensified scrutiny on U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) senior adviser Kari Lake after the self-proclaimed acting CEO seemed unable to demonstrate that the Voice of America (VOA) is operating even at a basic legal level.
In late July, the former news anchor and unsuccessful Republican political candidate drew the attention of Ronald Reagan-appointed Senior U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, who criticized the government’s “evasive” responses and “confusing and inconsistent information” regarding the VOA’s operational status.
After President Donald Trump’s executive order labeled the agency “the voice of radical America” to be silenced, journalists, including former VOA White House bureau chief Patsy Widakuswara and dismissed VOA Director Michael Abramowitz, initiated lawsuits against Lake. This was in reaction to attempts to dismantle the VOA news network and other federally-funded global media organizations, despite a congressionally enacted “statutory mandate that VOA continuously broadcast to the world[.]”
In July, Lamberth issued a show cause order seeking clarity on staffing levels, how much VOA programming had been restored, and “[h]ow the defendants’ actions align with VOA’s congressional appropriations” following a preliminary injunction. Lake must now respond under oath or risk a contempt trial.
The judge found it “deeply concerning” that members of the Trump administration, particularly Lake and USAGM senior adviser Frank Wuco, could not provide consistent statements about VOA’s operation as a “consistently reliable” news source in line with its “statutory mandate.”
Evidently, Lake’s ensuing declaration didn’t help her cause.
On Monday, Lamberth noted that the government has been “afforded […] multiple opportunities” to explain itself. But after careful study of those explanations, the judge remains unsatisfied.
“The Court,” Lamberth said, “finds that the defendants’ response fails to provide the information ordered in the Court’s Order to Show Cause—let alone explain how they are in compliance with the Court’s preliminary injunction, even on their preferred interpretation of the VOA’s statutory mandate.”
As a result, Lake, Wuco, and VOA director of Persian broadcasts Leili Soltani “shall sit for depositions” by Sept. 15 to give those answers — and in the meantime, they must “jointly and expeditiously” communicate with the plaintiffs to set dates for questioning under oath.
The judge emphasized that this would be the defendants’ “one final opportunity, short of a contempt trial, to provide such explanation[.]”
The depositions will come after Lamberth said “flip-flopping—in sworn declarations—raises severe concern” that the government hasn’t been “truthful” about the VOA’s status.
“The defendants have consistently refused to give the Court the full story regarding personnel actions,” read one heading in Lamberth’s ruling.
