Voice of America staff sue Kari Lake and Trump administration : NPR

Six Voice of America journalists sued Kari Lake and the Trump administration on Friday, alleging their moves to shut down the U.S.-funded network were unlawful and unconstitutional.

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.

More than 900 full-time network employees were placed on indefinite leave last weekend; 550 contractors were terminated from their jobs. Most employees at the federal parent, U.S. Agency for Global Media, were also placed on indefinite leave.

The lead plaintiffs include Patsy Widakuswara, until recently Voice of America’s White House bureau chief and Jessica Jerreat, its press freedom editor. Four other journalists sued anonymously as John Does. Kathryn Neeper, the director of strategy and performance assessment at the U.S. Agency for Global Media, is also a named plaintiff. She was also placed on leave.

Few Voice of America journalists are known inside the U.S.; the network is prohibited from broadcasting to American audiences. Nonetheless, Widakuswara made headlines twice: First in pressing Trump’s then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in early 2021 over the siege of the U.S. Capitol and, earlier this month, in asking Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin about “the president’s plans to expel Palestinians from Gaza” at an appearance with President Trump at the White House.

Irritated, Trump asked Widakuswara what outlet she worked for. Upon hearing the answer, he replied, “No wonder,” and called on another reporter.

Invoking “waste, fraud and abuse” to shut down network

Lake is Trump’s special adviser overseeing USAGM. “Waste, fraud, and abuse run rampant in this agency and American taxpayers shouldn’t have to fund it,” Lake said in announcing the moves last weekend.

The effect was to shut Voice of America down. The most recent stories on its home page and its audio headlines feed are a week old; live streaming services are unavailable.

The suit, which additionally names acting USAGM Chief Executive Victor Morales as a defendant, seeks immediate reinstatement of all full-time staffers and contractors. It points to regulations and law which specify a firewall to insulate Voice of America and the other international networks funded by the agency from political tampering. Those measures are intended to ensure their professionalism.

“Tragically, Kari Lake lives in the MAGA fantasy world, but she makes decisions that have real-world consequences for hundreds of journalists,” said David Seide, the lead attorney on the suit. Seide is senior counsel at the Government Accountability Project, a non-profit that seeks to protect the rights of whistleblowers.

“We’ve assembled a coalition of journalists, unions, and advocacy groups to stop and reverse the DOGE machine,” Seide added. Among the other backers of the suit are the press-rights group Reporters Without Borders and unions representing federal employees, journalists, and foreign policy staffers.

Lake gave this one-sentence reply to a request for comment for this story: “Kari Lake does not grant interviews or interact with disreputable ‘news’ outlets like NPR.” She has not responded to prior efforts seeking interviews.

Morales and the agency itself did not respond.

A history of bipartisan support

Congress has appropriated funds for the Voice of America every year since the broadcaster’s founding during World War II. Lawmakers allocated additional money for the broadcaster and other federally funded networks as part of the stopgap spending measure passed last week.

In addition to Voice of America, the U.S. Agency for Global Media also oversees Radio/TV Martí, which broadcasts to Cuba. The agency also disburses the money Congress allocates for privately incorporated networks — Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, the Middle East Broadcasting Networks — as well as the Open Technology Fund, which propels the open-source tech undergirding Signal and other secure communication programs.

The networks are intended to serve as a demonstration of soft power in places without a robust or free press. By providing news that incorporates political debate and dissent inside the U.S., the networks aim to promote and model pluralistic American ideals.

According to the agency, the networks together reach more than 420 million people in 63 languages and more than 100 countries each week. They are fully funded by federal dollars.

The withholding of federal dollars from the non-profit broadcasters has had immediate repercussions. Radio Free Asia on Friday furloughed three-quarters of its U.S.-based staff as it burns through the remaining money it has; Steve Capus, the chief executive of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty told NPR’s Leila Fadel this week that without a restoration of funds, the network would face “pretty drastic actions.”

Current lawsuits echo earlier clashes

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty sued Lake and the Trump administration earlier this week; the Open Tech Fund filed suit Thursday. Their suits were filed in the District of Columbia; the Voice of America plaintiffs sued in federal court in Manhattan.

The lawsuits are a replay of the litigation that ensued during Trump’s first term. His pick to run USAGM, Michael Pack, sought to overhaul the agency. His tenure was marked by one controversy after another; a formal federal investigation found that he had abused his powers.

Soon after taking office in mid-2020, Pack sought to deny work visas for foreign nationals employed by the network.

In the newest litigation against Lake, Morales and USAGM, two of the unnamed plaintiffs are described as freelance journalists working under contract to VOA. Each is said in the lawsuit to be a foreign national authorized to work in the U.S. under a J-1 visa; their visas will expire on March 31 if their visas are not renewed and the agency is not operational once more. In that case, they would have to return to their home countries.

John Doe 3 would return to a nation under rule by an authoritarian regime that has labeled Voice of America a “subversive organization,” according to the lawsuit; the plaintiff risks imprisonment for 15 years.

John Doe 4 is described as “a member of the LGBTQ community and is from a home country which persecutes and discriminates against LGBTQ people.”

Lake, a former local TV news anchor in Phoenix, ran twice for statewide office in Arizona as a MAGA Republican candidate. She lost both times. Last month, she became a senior adviser to the U.S. Agency for Global Media.

Trump initially touted her as the next director of Voice of America but his top budget-slashing adviser, Elon Musk, and other administration officials called for the network to be shut down altogether.

Lake has since embraced that charge.

“From top-to-bottom this agency is a giant rot and burden to the American taxpayer—a national security risk for this nation—and irretrievably broken,” the agency said in its release last Saturday. “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.”