A federal court on Wednesday essentially accused the Trump government of ignoring its orders to restore the Voice of America's activities and clearly explain what it does with the operation run by the government that news provides to other countries.
The American district judge Royce Lamberth of the District of Columbia gave the administration until 13 August to explain how the VOA will work again. The outlet that dates from the Second World War is largely dark since March.
Lamberth said that the administration should show what it is doing with the $ 260 million congress that has been assigned this year for the activities of VOA.
Kari Lake, the adviser who was appointed by Trump to run the government news authorities, said in June that 85% of employees at VOA and her supervisors had lost their job at the American Global Media Office. She called it a “long -awaited effort to dismantle a bloated, irresponsible bureaucracy.”
Lamberth said there is a process for eliminating financing that was previously appropriated – the congress must vote on it, as it recently did for NPR and PBS financing. But that didn't happen here, he said.
He reprimanded the administration for providing “Cagey answers” and omitting important information when this is requested in previous judicial orders.
“Without a doubt explanation, the court is left to conclude that the defendants simply try to get up the clock in the fiscal year, without the money that the congress has allocated to the intended that the congress was intended,” wrote Lamberth. “The legal term for that is 'waste'.”
There was no immediate comment from the White House.
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David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him on http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social.
