The director of Voice of America, along with journalists at the government-funded international broadcaster, sued Trump administration officials on Wednesday over the government’s attempt to shut down the network.
The lawsuit, filed by Michael Abramowitz, Voice of America’s director, marks the latest legal challenge to the administration’s push to shrink the government. President Trump signed an executive order earlier this month to dismantle seven federal agencies, including the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia.
The suit follows a separate complaint filed last week by Voice of America journalists and their unions, who argued that the government’s actions to dismantle the news outlet violated their First Amendment rights. Voice of America, with a budget of roughly $270 million and more than 2,000 employees, broadcasts in 49 languages and has an estimated weekly audience of more than 361 million.
Hundreds of Voice of America employees were placed on administrative leave, effectively causing the broadcaster to go dark. That move, and the administration’s decision to terminate contractors, “contravenes base line constitutional principles and the express will of Congress,” the plaintiffs said in their complaint on Wednesday, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
The lawsuit names Kari Lake, Trump’s special adviser overseeing the Agency for Global Media; and Victor Morales, the acting chief executive of the agency, as defendants.
“Waste, fraud and abuse run rampant in this agency, and American taxpayers shouldn’t have to fund it,” Ms. Lake said in a statement this month announcing her moves to shrink the outlets the Agency for Global Media oversees. The agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.
The Voice of America suit argues that dismantling the broadcaster violates federal law, including the Administrative Procedure Act, which governs the process by which federal agencies develop and issue regulations. It is also a violation of separation of powers, the plaintiffs said, because Congress is solely responsible for creating or abolishing agencies, and for determining agencies’ mandates. The Agency for Global Media is congressionally chartered as an independent agency.
“Litigation is the only way to stop the wholesale destruction of VOA,” Mr. Abramowitz said in a letter to staff on Wednesday, which he shared in a social media post.
Shutting down the organization would be “an incalculable self-inflicted wound for America,” he added, pointing to its audiences in Iran, China, Venezuela and other countries “where the people are actively seeking out alternatives to state-dominated propaganda.”
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is also fighting the Trump administration’s efforts. On Tuesday, a federal judge temporarily blocked Ms. Lake and the administration from cutting off its funding, saying the move would violate a congressional mandate.
Voice of America began broadcasting in 1942, transmitting to countries via a worldwide network of affiliates. Much of the organization’s content is produced in Washington.
With most of Voice of America’s work force locked out this month, at least some of its radio frequencies in Asia, the Middle East and elsewhere went dark or began broadcasting only music, employees said.
