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WASHINGTON — The agency that oversees Voice of America and other government-funded international broadcasters is eliminating more than 500 employees, the Trump administration has announced, a move that could ratchet up a months-long legal challenge over the news outlets’ fate.

Kari Lake, acting chief executive of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, VOA’s oversight agency, announced the latest round of job cuts late Friday, one day after a federal judge blocked her from removing Michael Abramowitz as VOA director.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth had ruled separately that the Trump administration had failed to show how it was complying with his orders to restore VOA’s operations. His order Monday gave the administration “one final opportunity, short of a contempt trial,” to demonstrate its compliance. He ordered Lake to sit for a deposition by lawyers for agency employees by Sept. 15.

On Thursday, Lamberth said Abramowitz could not be removed without the approval of the majority of the International Broadcasting Advisory Board. Firing Abramowitz would be “plainly contrary to law,” according to Lamberth, who was nominated to the bench by President Reagan.

Lake posted a statement on social media that said her agency had initiated a reduction in force, or RIF, eliminating 532 jobs for full-time government employees. She said the agency “will continue to fulfill its statutory mission after this RIF — and will likely improve its ability to function.”

“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,” she wrote.

A group of agency employees who sued to block VOA’s elimination said Lake’s move would give their colleagues 30 days until their pay and benefits end.

“We find Lake’s continued attacks on our agency abhorrent,” they said in a statement. “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. So far we have not seen any evidence of that.”

In June, layoff notices were sent to more than 600 agency employees. Abramowitz was placed on administrative leave along with almost the entire VOA staff. He was told he would be fired effective Aug. 31.

The administration said in a court filing Thursday that it planned to send RIF notices to 486 employees of Voice of America and 46 other agency employees but intended to retain 158 agency employees and 108 VOA employees. The filing said the global media agency had 137 “active employees” and 62 other employees on administrative leave, while VOA had 86 active employees and 512 others on administrative leave.

Lake’s agency also oversees Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, Middle East Broadcasting Networks and Radio Marti, which beams Spanish-language news into Cuba. The networks, which together reach an estimated 427 million people, date to the Cold War and are part of a network of government-funded organizations designed to extend U.S. influence and combat authoritarianism.

Kunzelman writes for the Associated Press.

Aug. 30 (UPI) — The remaining 532 employees at the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which is the parent agency of the Voice of America, have received termination notices.

Kari Lake sent the pink slips to the respective workers on Friday evening, according to The Washington Post.

“Tonight, 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 said in the termination notice.

“We are conducting this RIF at the President’s direction to help reduce the federal bureaucracy, improve agency service and save the American people more of their hard-earned money.”

Lake is the Trump administration’s official in charge of overseeing the eventual end of Voice of America.

The VOA originally was created to counter Nazi propaganda during World War II, and all of its staff members were put on administrative leave in March, Politico reported.

The Trump administration then stopped production at most of the VOA’s publishing outlets.

About 600 contractors were let go in May, and hundreds of employees received termination notices in June.

Many of the termination notices temporarily were rescinded due to errors, but they were told the agency would undergo an RIF sometime soon after.

Legal challenges were filed against the initial firings and likely will for Friday’s action, according to Politico.

Aug. 29 (UPI) — A federal judge has prohibited the Trump administration from dismissing Voice of America director Michael Abramowitz, handing President Donald Trump a defeat in his effort to dismantle the government-run and federally funded international news organization.

In his ruling Thursday, Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of D.C. stated that the Trump administration cannot fire Abramowitz without approval of the International Broadcasting Advisory Board.

“The applicable statutory requirements could not be clearer: the director of Voice of America ‘may only be removed if such action has been approved by a majority of the vote,'” Lamberth wrote.

“There is no longer a question of whether the termination was unlawful.”

Trump has sought to dismantle Voice of America, a decades-old soft-power tool for the United States that broadcasts news internationally, since returning to the White House in January, stating the broadcaster creates anti-Trump and “radical propaganda.”

On taking office, Trump fired six of the seven International Broadcasting Advisory Board members, and then in March placed Abramowitz and 1,300 other Voice of American employees on administrative leave.

On July 8, the U.S. Agency for Global Media informed Abramowitz that he was being reassigned as chief management officer to Greenville, N.C., and if he did not accept the position, he would be fired.

Before the end of the month, Abramowitz sued.

Then on Aug. 1, USAGM sent Abramowitz a letter stating he would be fired effective the end of this month if he did not accept the Greenville transfer.

The government had argued before the court that Abramowitz’s claims are not valid because he has not yet been fired, and that the rule dictating advisory board approval for hiring and firing a VOA director interfered with Trump’s executive authority.

In response, Lamberth, a President Ronald Reagan appointee, countered that whether USAGM fired Abramowitz or transferred him, he would still be removed from his position without the board’s approval, and if the Trump wished to have a vote on the matter, he could replace the board members he removed.

“To the extent the Board’s current lack of quorum institutes a practical barrier to removing Abramowitz, the Broadcast Act gives the President a straightforward remedy: replacing the removed members,” he wrote.

“The defendants do not even feign that their efforts to remove Abramowitz comply with that statutory requirement. How could they, when the board has been without a quorum since January?”

May 16 (UPI) — U.S. President Donald Trump has directed the firing of almost 600 employees with the publicly-funded Voice of America, representing about a third of the broadcaster’s staff.

“Today, in compliance with President Trump’s Executive Order titled, Continuing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy, dated March 14, 2025, the US Agency for Global Media initiated measures to eliminate the non-statutory components and functions to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law,” U.S. Agency for Global Media Senior Adviser Kari Lake said on the agency’s website late Thursday.

“This action will impact the agency’s workforce at USAGM, Voice of America, Office of Cuba Broadcasting, and all Grantees. Most USAGM staff affected by this action will be placed on paid-administrative leave beginning Saturday, March 15, 2025, and remain on leave until further notice.”

“Buckle up. There’s more to come,” Lake said in an email to the Washington Post.

The USAGM is the agency responsible for VOA, which provides non-partisan news content in countries across the world, including China, Iran, Russia and others with limited freedom of the press.

The bulk of Voice of America’s approximately 1,350 full-time employees were not affected by the latest executive order, which targets mostly contractors.

Lake confirmed 584 positions were affected.

VOA director Michael Abramowitz told staff he is “heartbroken,” The Post reported, citing an internal memo.

“Some of VOA’s most talented journalists have been [personal services contractors] – many of whom have escaped tyranny in their home countries to tell America’s story of freedom and democracy,” Abramowitz wrote in the memo.

Trump’s executive order aims to continue “the reduction in the elements of the Federal bureaucracy that the President has determined are unnecessary.”

The president has previously called the agency “anti-American” and accused it of broadcasting “propaganda.”

The news comes despite a federal judge in April ordering the Trump administration to restore funding and staffing to Voice of America and its affiliated news services. At the time, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth deemed the administration’s cuts to be unconstitutional.

Trump in mid-March signed an executive order to reduce the scope of the federal government, which targeted the USGM and VOA.

Earlier this month, the Justice Department announced a “phased return” of VOA staff following court rulings.

Lake in her statement said the agency would continue its international broadcast of U.S. news, but vowed once again to cut excessive spending.

“While at USAGM, I vow to fully implement President Trump’s executive orders in his mission to reduce the size and scope of the federal government,” Lake said in the statement, adding the reductions are within what is “statutorily required by law.”

“The US Agency for Global media will continue to deliver on all statutory programs that fall under the agency’s purview and shed everything that is not statutorily required. I fully support the President’s executive order. Waste, fraud, and abuse run rampant in this agency and American taxpayers shouldn’t have to fund it,” Lake wrote.