Judge Freezes Plan to Fire Hundreds of VOA Employees

A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s plan to eliminate hundreds of jobs at the agency that oversees Voice of America (VOA), the U.S. government-funded broadcaster founded to counter Nazi propaganda during World War II, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

The judge accused the administration of showing “concerning disrespect” toward the court after it failed to comply with earlier orders to produce information about its plans for VOA. (Photo: Rhododendrites Wikimedia Commons) 

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth in Washington, D.C., ruled that the U.S. Agency for Global Media cannot implement a reduction in force that would eliminate 532 full-time government positions.

Those employees represent the vast majority of its remaining staff.

Kari Lake, the agency’s acting CEO, had announced in late August that the job cuts would take effect this month.

But Lamberth’s ruling preserves the status quo until he rules on the plaintiffs’ motion to block the reduction in force.

Lamberth previously ruled that President Donald Trump’s administration must restore VOA programming to levels commensurate with its statutory mandate to “serve as a consistently reliable and authoritative source of news.”

He also barred Lake from removing Michael Abramowitz as VOA’s director.

The judge accused the administration of showing “concerning disrespect” toward the court after it failed to comply with earlier orders to produce information about its plans for VOA.

He noted that the agency initiated the job cuts just hours after a hearing last month in which government lawyers said a reduction in force was merely a possibility.

“The defendants’ obfuscation of this Court’s request for information regarding whether their RIF plans comported with the preliminary injunction has wasted precious judicial time and resources and readily supports contempt proceedings,” Lamberth wrote.