A U.S. appeals court panel on Tuesday paused a federal judge’s order that reinstated staffers from Voice of America, the U.S.-funded news organization that President Donald Trump has sought to dismantle.
The order by the three-judge panel halts a March 17 ruling from Judge Royce C. Lamberth that demanded the U.S. Agency for Global Media, VOA’s parent agency, allow the more than 1,000 VOA journalists put on administrative leave last year to return to work. Lamberth ordered USAGM to begin processing staffers, and the agency had started to admit about 70 staffers a week last month, according to the New York Times.
A USAGM spokesperson told TheWrap it was “encouraged” by the ruling and said the agency would continue to “advance President Trump’s agenda without disruption as the legal process moves forward.” They did not answer whether those who had already returned to work would be placed back on leave.
The ruling capped a month of judicial orders surrounding VOA, which produces U.S.-style journalism for an international audience. Lamberth ruled early last month that Trump advisor Kari Lake’s appointment as USAGM’s CEO was illegal, invalidating her orders last year that included mass layoffs at the news agency. Lake, who put most of VOA’s staff on administrative leave last year, remains USAGM‘s deputy CEO.
The judge also ordered USAGM to outline a succession plan for who would run the department in light of his Lake order. Trump nominated State Department official Sarah B. Rogers to lead the agency, while Michael Rigas has begun as acting CEO ahead of her Senate confirmation. USAGM also named former Newsmax executive Christopher Wallace as VOA’s deputy director.
Lamberth’s order returning staffers to work stemmed from lawsuits against Lake filed by VOA staffers Patsy Widakuswara, Jessica Jerreat and Kate Neeper and another by VOA Director Michael Abramowitz. The staffers said in a statement they “always knew the road would be long and difficult.”
“This development will not deter us from our fight to restore VOA’s global operations and to broadcast journalism, not propaganda,” Widakuswara, Jerreat and Neeper said.
Abramowitz said in a separate statement that USAGM told the court it had “developed a plan to bring the VOA employees on administrative leave back to work over the next two months.”
“It is very much in the national interest that the agency continues to implement its plan to restore Voice of America,” he said.
Trump and Lake worked last year to shutter VOA and its sister organizations under USAGM, believing the news outlet was broadcasting “anti-Trump” and left-wing “propaganda.” Lake has also claimed USAGM was “not salvageable,” though she has since said she will work to “root-out corruption at the agency and make it more accountable to American taxpayers.”
Lake called the appeals court ruling “welcome news” in an X post on Tuesday.