A federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to restore government funding appropriated to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty for the rest of fiscal year 2025.
The network is among several federally funded outlets overseen by the U.S. Agency for Global Media that aim to distribute information to countries with restricted press freedom. The Trump administration, led by USAGM senior adviser Kari Lake, has sought to overhaul RFE/RL and other outlets under the agency’s umbrella due to concerns they have strayed far from the founding vision and become “radical propaganda” machines for the Left.
However, U.S. District Court Royce Lamberth ruled this weekend that the Trump administration does not have legal authority to revoke already approved congressional funding for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty due to determinations that the White House failed to communicate a clear basis for the measure.
“Congress has appropriated funds for RFE/RL every year since the enactment of the International Broadcasting Act of 1987,” the Washington, D.C., judge wrote, adding that the Trump administration “has fallen short of its duty to articulate a satisfactory explanation” because “it has offered no explanation at all.”
Lake attempted in March to refuse roughly $77 million to RFE/RL that Congress had appropriated to the outlet in a budget bill Trump signed that month. The funding was appropriated until Sept. 30, the end of the current fiscal year.
RFE/RL retaliated with a lawsuit challenging the rescission of funding, leading Lamberth to issue a temporary restraining order in the outlet’s favor against the Trump administration’s attempt to disband the radio network.
Still, USAGM has, in the months since, continued to effectively block funding to RFE/RL by conditioning the renewal of a new funding contract on the imposition of new grant terms.
Lamberth ruled that while the Trump administration has the leeway to negotiate new contract terms, it had failed to engage in good-faith negotiations with RFE/RL and had “not bargained or debated over any of the radically different terms.” The judge ordered that, due to those concerns, USAGM must “immediately” enter into a contract with the outlet using the same terms negotiated in the most recently expired agreement.
“The defendants must also restore disbursement of RFE/RL’s congressionally appropriated funds to RFE/RL on a monthly basis pending final resolution of this lawsuit,” he wrote. “As far as this Court is aware, it is unprecedented for an agency to demand that entirely new terms govern its decades-old working relationship with a grantee entity and then stop responding, particularly when the agency is statutorily obligated to grant yearly congressional appropriations to that specific entity by name.”
Lake has led the Trump administration’s efforts to shut down RFE/RL, which operates under the same umbrella as Voice of America, a USAGM outlet that has raised similar scrutiny from the White House.
JUDGE BLOCKS KARI LAKE AND TRUMP ADMINISTRATION FROM PULLING RADIO FREE EUROPE FUNDING
She has accused VOA and RFE/RL of harboring “spies and terrorist sympathizers,” suggesting it is squandering taxpayer funds and “not salvageable.”
RFE/RL broadcasts in 27 languages to 23 countries across Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the Middle East, reaching more than 47 million people every week, according to the outlet.