Kari Lake is under investigation for possible criminal violations of the law related to her leadership at the Voice of America.
President Donald Trump installed the failed Republican candidate for Arizona governor and U.S. Senate to reduce the workforce at the outlet and the U.S. Agency for Global Media, but the Government Accountability Office has opened an investigation into a federal judge's allegations that she overstepped her statutory authority with her layoffs, reported the Washington Post.
“[W]hen Congress appropriated $260 million to VOA for [fiscal year] 2025, it did not anticipate that such a significant sum of taxpayer funds would be used to pay employees to sit at home for months on end,” wrote U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, a Reagan appointee. “The legal term for that is ‘waste,’ and it is precisely what federal appropriation law aims to avoid.”
Congressional staffers for Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Brian Schatz (D-HI) warned Lake in June that she was breaking the law by using congressionally appropriated funds to lay off staffers, and the judge has asked the government to explain how USAGM was restoring VOA programming and detail its plan to reduce the agency's workforce.
Lake declared in a court filing Wednesday that Trump had “expressed strong interest in … closing USAGM,” adding that she intends to carry out his March 14 executive order “within the bounds of current and future federal law," but she denied acting outside of congressional intentions.
“Until such time as Congress deems it appropriate to pass legislation to either close or reform USAGM, USAGM has no present plans to wind down USAGM’s operations,” Lake wrote in the filing.
Lake has said she would “supplement content” with programming from right-wing One America News, and revealed the agency is “engaged in ongoing discussions with Newsmax in pursuit of a similar agreement," and the Trump appointee says the agency would move out of its Washington headquarters by the end of the year and plans use artificial intelligence tools to produce graphics.
VOA journalists Patsy Widakuswara, Jessica Jerreat and Kate Neeper are among those challenging the layoffs, and they said Lake's filing “offers nothing new of substance” besides her “plan to partner with another partisan media outlet ... that is contrary to the law and VOA’s mandate to serve as a reliable and authoritative source of news."
Lake was warned June 11 by the Foreign Operations and Related Programs subcommittee that notices sent to Voice of America staffers violated the Anti-Deficiency Act, which obligates officials to maintain the congressional appropriations for their agencies, and while the law carries criminal penalties, it's unlikely Trump’s Justice Department would indict Lake or any other staffers carrying out his executive order.
Schatz has asked the GAO to conduct an expedited review of Anti-Deficiency Act violations, and Charles Kieffer, a former longtime staff director for Democrats on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said there was "no question” that Lake’s actions violate the law.
USAGM staffers are hoping that Lamberth will restore their jobs, but the GAO has limited enforcement power if Lake is found to have violated the law by laying them off.
“There’s never been anybody that’s ever been convicted or indicted for violation of the act,” said G. William Hoagland, senior vice president of the Bipartisan Policy Center and a former director of the Senate Budget Committee.