From the Associated Press: A federal judge agreed Monday to temporarily suspend the Trump administration’s plan to eliminate hundreds of jobs at the agency that oversees Voice of America, the government-funded broadcaster founded to counter Nazi propaganda during World War II.
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 eliminating 532 jobs for full-time government employees on Tuesday. Those employees represent the vast majority of its remaining staff.
Kari Lake, the agency’s acting CEO, announced in late August that the job cuts would take effect Tuesday. But the judge’s ruling preserves the status quo at the agency until he rules on a plaintiffs’ underlying motion to block the reduction in force.
Lamberth previously ruled that President Donald Trump’s Republican 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 blocked Lake from removing Michael Abramowitz as VOA’s director.
In a 19-page ruling, the judge delivered a scathing rebuke to Lake for firing the employees and declared that the Trump administration’s conduct in this case would support civil contempt proceedings, if only the plaintiffs had asked.
ABOUT THIS JUDGE: Royce Lamberth, 82, now a senior judge, was nominated by President Ronald Reagan in March 1987, to the seat on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, and was confirmed by the Senate in November 1987. He is a Republican.
Judge Lamberth, a Reagan employee, slams the govt’s “disrespect” for his orders.
He says contempt proceedings would be warranted, but he doesn’t order them because nobody asked for them. https://t.co/Ld7mJLglLm pic.twitter.com/MbQU6I55zO
— Adam Klasfeld (@KlasfeldReports) September 30, 2025
JUST IN: Judge Lamberth has *blocked* a new wave of terminations at Voice of America, offering harsh words for Kari Lake and saying the Trump administration’s conduct in his case would support civil contempt proceedings, if only the plaintiffs had asked. https://t.co/G7SDcyjzJi pic.twitter.com/zsQqQGscbm
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) September 30, 2025
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