Judge temporarily bars effort to defund Radio Free Europe

A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked Kari Lake and the Trump administration from moving to defund Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL).

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth found that the administration and Lake, who oversees U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which funds the radio station and Voice of America (VOA), likely violated the law by attempting to terminate RFE/RL’s funding and granted its request for a temporary restraining order.

"RFE/RL has, for decades, operated as one of the organizations that Congress has statutorily designated to carry out this policy,” Lamberth, appointed by former President Reagan, wrote in a 10-page opinion. “The leadership of USAGM cannot, with one sentence of reasoning offering virtually no explanation, force RFE/RL to shut down — even if the President has told them to do so.”

The efforts to freeze RFE/RL’s funding followed President Trump’s executive order aimed at eliminating USAGM.

RFE/RL claimed in its complaint that the radio station’s funding immediately froze, undercutting Congress’s power of the purse, and a $7.4 million invoice was left unpaid. However, the Justice Department wrote in court filings Monday that the $7.4 million had been disbursed.

DOJ lawyer Abby Stout argued during a hearing Monday that because the requested millions had been disbursed, the challengers’ request for temporary injunctive relief should be denied.

“In this limited setting today, the TRO would not be appropriate,” she argued.

But lawyers for RFE/RL said that disbursement of funds is only a temporary solution to the issues the radio station will face if their grant is cancelled. Thomas Brugato, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, warned that the network would have to lay off staff and shut down as soon as April if the funding doesn’t resume.

“It’s really a Band-Aid,” Brugato said.

RFE/RL publishes content in 27 languages for 23 countries across Europe and Asia, reaching a weekly audience of more than 47 million people.

Lamberth wrote in his decision that, for 75 years, the government has specifically supported RFE/RL as a vehicle for providing “trustworthy, locally relevant news to audiences subject to communist propaganda.”

“The Court concludes, in keeping with Congress’s longstanding determination, that the continued operation of RFE/RL is in the public interest,” he wrote.

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