Federal judge says Kari Lake can't fire Voice of America director

U.S. Senior District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth found that Kari Lake cannot unilaterally remove Voice of America Director Michael Abramowitz because statutory law requires explicit approval from a congressional advisory panel. President Trump dismissed six of the panel's seven members and has not named Senate-confirmed replacements, leaving no lawful mechanism for Lake to act. A proposed reassignment of Abramowitz to a shortwave radio facility was also deemed illegal. Lamberth is overseeing two lawsuits related to these actions. Abramowitz, a plaintiff, welcomed the ruling and emphasized the urgency of restoring robust Voice of America programming for U.S. security and influence.

A federal judge ruled on Thursday that Trump administration official Kari Lake can't unilaterally fire the director of Voice of America, saying she's breaking the law in trying to do so. Instead, by law, Lake must have the explicit backing of an advisory panel set up by Congress to help insulate the international broadcaster and its sister networks from political pressure. As President Trump dismissed six of the seven members of the panel shortly after taking office and has not named their replacements to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Lake cannot take such an action.

Voice of America Director Michael Abramowitz had initially been offered a reassignment to oversee a handful of employees at a shortwave radio transmission facility in Greenville, N.C. But the reassignment would have been illegal, too, U.S Senior District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth wrote. "The defendants do not even feign that their efforts to remove Abramowitz comply with that statutory requirement," Lamberth wrote in his decision. "There is no longer a question of whether the termination was lawful."

(In his ruling, Lamberth called Abramowitz's attempted firing "yet another twist in the saga of the U.S. Agency for Global Media's efforts to dial back the operations of Voice of America contrary to statutory requirements.") Abramowitz is among the plaintiffs suing Lake and the agency. "I am very gratified by Judge Lamberth's ruling and his finding that the U.S. Agency for Global Media must follow the law as Congress mandated," Abramowitz says in a comment shared with NPR. "It is especially urgent for Voice of America to resume robust programming, which is so important for the security and influence of the United States."

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