The director of Voice of America filed suit against Trump administration officials today, seeking a court order to stop the dismantling of the U.S. operated international broadcaster.In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, Michael Abramowitz sued Kari Lake and Victor Morales, who have been presiding over the placement of nearly all of VOA’s 1,300 employees on administrative leave and the termination of contractors’ agreements for 500 others.Their moves came after President Donald Trump issued an executive order to slash the U.S. Agency for Global Media, the entity that oversees VOA and other international networks, to only statutory functions.“Congress created VOA; required it to fulfill certain statutory objectives, including producing and broadcasting journalism according to high professional standards; and has consistently appropriated funds to VOA so that it may continue serving its mission,” Abramowitz’s legal team wrote in the lawsuit. “Congress—and only Congress—may alter VOA’s appropriations, alter its statutory functions, or ultimately dismantle it.”In the lawsuit, Abramowitz’s legal team noted that some of the contractors are on visas and will lose their legal status.They “may face possible persecution by their home countries’ governments if forced to return to their home countries.”Abramowitz was joined in his lawsuit by Anthony Michael LaBruto, a journalist in the English to Africa Service in the Africa Division of VOA. Two other journalists were included as plaintiffs as J. Does.With the massive cuts to jobs, VOA’s work has been halted, and its website was last updated almost two weeks ago.A group of VOA employees filed suit over the closure of the media entity earlier this week.Abramowitz’s lawsuit seeks a temporary restraining order and injunction to restore VOA.On Tuesday, a judge put a stop to Trump’s effort to cut off funding for the non-profit Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, concluding that the administration’s efforts to shut it down would cause irreparable harm.“The leadership of USAGM cannot, with one sentence of reasoning offering virtually no explanation, force RFE/RL to shut down—even if the President has told them to do so,” wrote U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth.
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