Kari Lake Fires Over 500 Voice of America Staff

Kari Lake, who serves as President Donald Trump's top adviser to the U.S. Agency for Global Media, has officially dismissed more than 500 Voice of America employees, the former journalist announced Friday evening.  

Lake sent termination letters to 532 employees of the broadcaster and its parent company late on Friday. "The U.S. Agency for Global Media initiated what is known as a reduction in force, or RIF, of a large number of its full-time federal employees," Lake wrote, adding that this would "help reduce the federal bureaucracy ... and save the American people more of their hard-earned money."

"I look forward to taking additional steps in the coming months to improve the functioning of a very broken agency and make sure America's voice is heard abroad where it matters most," Lake added.

In his first term, Trump accused VOA of speaking "for America's adversaries - not its citizens" during the height of the COVID-19 lockdowns and said the agency was relying on Chinese propaganda. Two months into his second administration, the president signed an executive order to reduce the agency to the "minimum presence and function required by law," which resulted in more than 1,000 journalists being placed on indefinite administrative leave.

Lake, a Trump loyalist who lost races for Arizona governor in 2022 and the U.S. Senate in 2024, fired 500 contractors in May and then sought to dismiss more than 600 full-time staffers in June, a move quickly reversed after the federal employee union AFGE uncovered numerous administrative errors by the agency.

In May, the AFGE sued the USAGM, Acting Director Victor Morales, and Lake challenging the closing of the agency and arguing that the federal government "failed to fulfill its legally required functions and violated both the freedom of journalists and separation of powers when it ordered staff not to report to work, suspended contractors, turned off service, and locked the agency's doors."

In a Saturday statement on X, VOA journalists Patsy Widakuswara and Jessica Jerreat, and Kate Neeper, a director at the U.S. Agency for Global Media, called Lake's firings "abhorrent."

"We are looking forward to her deposition to hear whether her plan to dismantle VOA was done with the rigorous review process that Congress requires," Widakuswara, Jerreat, and Neeper, all plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said. "So far we have not seen any evidence of that, and as such we will continue to fight for what we believe to be our rights under the law."

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