US judge orders preliminary VOA funding restoration

 

A judge has ordered President Donald Trump’s administration to restore funding to Voice of America and other U.S.-funded media, saying its abrupt shutdown broke the law.

The federal judge in Washington agreed to a request by the outlets’ employees for a preliminary injunction, a temporary order that would allow the court to examine the legal challenge in greater depth.

Trump, who has long jostled with the press and questioned the editorial rules that prohibit interference in government-funded media, issued an executive order on March 14 to eliminate the outlets.

The following day, Kari Lake, his firebrand supporter turned advisor, began issuing notices to terminate all funding, which was appropriated by Congress.

Lake and other Trump officials are “likely in direct violation of numerous federal laws,” wrote Royce Lamberth, a judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia.

The US Agency for Global Media, which supervises taxpayer-funded media, is allowed by law to redirect funds among its various outlets by five per cent or less, he wrote.

“Certainly, no law gives the agency the power to cut funding to the drastic degree that is alleged,” he wrote