by
John
Moore/Getty
Images)
Right
now
would
be
a
really
good
time
for
the
US
to
have
a
direct
line
to
speak
to
the
Iranian
people.
A
radio
station,
broadcasting
directly
into
Iran
from
a
friendly
Gulf
state
like,
say
…
Kuwait.
But
we
don’t
because
Arizona’s
perennial
loser
Kari
Lake
pulled
the
plug
last
year
on
most
of
Radio
Farda,
which
previously
broadcast
news
in
Farsi
into
Iran,
along
with
much
of
Voice
of
America,
Radio
Free
Europe/Radio
Liberty,
and
the
multiple
outlets
that
fall
under
the
US
Agency
for
Global
Media
(USAGM).
Lake
has
been
locked
in
a
pitched
battle
with
a
Judge
Royce
Lamberth
in
DC
as
she
desperately
tries
to
prove
herself
to
President
Trump
by
burning
down
the
media
outlets
which
have
been
a
major
source
of
American
soft
power
since
World
War
II.
But
instead
the
court
ruled
that
installing
her
as
“Deputy
CEO”
of
USAGM
was
an
illegal
end-run
around
Senate
confirmation,
and
everything
she
did
was
a
nullity.
Fake
it
‘til
you
make
it
As
president-elect,
Trump
promised
to
appoint
Lake
director
of
VOA,
“to
ensure
that
the
American
values
of
Freedom
and
Liberty
are
broadcast
around
the
World
FAIRLY
and
ACCURATELY,
unlike
the
lies
spread
by
the
Fake
News
Media.”
And
maybe
at
the
time
he
really
meant
it!
But
once
in
office,
Trump
fired
most
of
the
International
Broadcasting
Advisory
Board,
which
must
approve
the
director
of
VOA.
Without
a
quorum,
no
one
could
vote
in
Lake
as
the
agency
director.
So
instead
she
was
named
“Deputy
CEO”
of
USAGM.
At
the
same
time,
longtime
USAGM
advisor
Victor
Morales
was
elevated
to
Acting
CEO,
whereupon
he
immediately
executed
a
memo
devolving
most
of
his
authority
to
Lake.
But
those
were
the
DOGE
days,
when
whole
federal
agencies
were
disappearing
overnight,
and
by
then
the
president
had
decided
what
he
really
wanted
was
get
rid
of
USAGM
entirely.
On
March
14,
2025,
Trump
signed
an
executive
order
targeting
various
“unnecessary”
agencies
as
the
Minority
Business
Development
Agency,
the
Institute
of
Museum
and
Library
Services,
the
United
States
Interagency
Council
on
Homelessness,
and
of
course
USAGM
for
destruction.
Each
of
these
was
established
by
Congress
and
fully
funded
in
the
budget,
and
yet
the
president
ordered
them
“eliminated
to
the
maximum
extent
consistent
with
applicable
law,
and
such
entities
shall
reduce
the
performance
of
their
statutory
functions
and
associated
personnel
to
the
minimum
presence
and
function
required
by
law.”
With
her
borrowed
powers,
Lake
set
about
canceling
contracts,
shutting
down
broadcast
servers,
firing
employees,
and
terminating
leases.
She
called
USAGM
“a
rotten
piece
of
fish”
and
vowed
to
end
it
down
forever,
perhaps
replacing
it
with
feeds
from
conservative
outlets
like
One
America
News.
The
fired
journalists
sued,
and
Judge
Royce
Lamberth,
a
conservative
“old
bull”
blocked
Lake
from
terminating
most
employees
and
shutting
down
the
agency
entirely.
But
she
did
succeed
in
ending
many
of
the
foreign-language
broadcasts
which
spread
American
values
and
provided
real
news
to
citizens
living
in
nations
without
a
free
press.
On
July
31,
Lake
took
over
as
Acting
CEO
of
USAGM.
By
law,
USAGM’s
head
is
a
principal
officer
who
must
be
confirmed
by
the
Senate.
And
if
Trump
had
bothered
to
nominate
her,
the
same
supine
Congress
that
confirmed
Pete
Hegseth,
Kristi
Noem,
and
Robert
Kennedy
would
almost
certainly
have
held
its
nose
and
waved
her
along.
Instead,
Lake
claimed
authority
under
the
Federal
Vacancies
Reform
Act
(5
USC
§
3345),
which
automatically
authorizes
the
first
assistant
to
a
Senate-confirmed
official
to
take
over
if
the
position
becomes
vacant.
Déjà
vu
all
over
again
If
this
sounds
familiar,
it’s
because
it’s
exactly
what
Trump
did
when
he
couldn’t
get
his
preferred
candidates
confirmed
as
US
Attorneys
in
blue
states
thanks
to
the
Senate’s
blue
slip
rule.
Attorney
General
Pam
Bondi
purported
to
elevate
unconfirmable
cronies
like
Alina
Habba
in
New
Jersey
and
Bill
Essayli
in
Los
Angeles
by
making
them
their
own
first
assistants
and
then
replacing
themselves
by
action
of
the
FVRA
when
their
interim
appointments
timed
out.
As
a
backstop,
Bondi
appointed
the
cronies
as
special
counsels,
purporting
to
delegate
all
the
authority
of
the
US
Attorney’s
office
to
them.
The
USAGM
litigation
is
also
a
callback
to
the
first
Trump
administration,
when
he
tried
to
illegally
install
Ken
“Cooch”
Cuccinelli
as
acting
Director
of
United
States
Citizenship
and
Immigration
Services
(USCIS).
As
Virginia’s
attorney
general,
Cuccinelli
tried
to
ban
dildos
(for
real),
which
failed
to
lead
him
to
victory
in
the
2013
gubernatorial
race.
Cooch
went
on
to
lead
the
Senate
Conservatives
Fund,
dedicated
to
primarying
sitting
Republican
Senators
from
the
right.
This
did
not
endear
him
to
those
sitting
Republican
Senators,
who
made
clear
that
Trump’s
plan
to
get
Cuccinelli
confirmed
as
head
of
DHS
(or
literally
anything
else)
was
DOA.
So
Trump
came
up
with
another
plan,
inventing
a
new
position
called
the
Principal
Deputy
Director
and
effectively
inserting
Cuccinelli
into
the
line
of
succession
at
USCIS
via
the
FVRA.
In
2020,
Judge
Randolph
Moss
held
that
“Defendants’
construction
of
the
vacant-office
provision
is
at
odds
with
the
statutory
purpose
of
the
FVRA”
and
voided
several
of
Cuccinelli’s
directives
because
he’d
never
been
the
legitimate
head
of
USCIS.
And
in
2025,
the
Third
Circuit
and
six
trial
judges
across
the
country
similarly
agreed
that
Bondi
couldn’t
use
the
FVRA
to
evade
the
Constitutional
and
statutory
requirement
of
Senate
confirmation.
This
weekend,
Judge
Royce
Lamberth
drew
on
both
those
rulings
to
find
that
Lake
had
never
been
lawfully
appointed
as
Acting
CEO
of
USAGM.
Section
3345(a)(1)
automatically
elevates
the
first
assistant,
but
only
if
that
assistant
is
serving
at
the
moment
when
the
Senate-confirmed
officer
leaves.
USAGM
CEO
Amanda
Bennett
resigned
at
Trump’s
inauguration
on
January
20,
2025,
and
Lake
didn’t
join
the
agency
until
March.
Sections
3345(a)(2)
and
(a)(3)
allow
the
president
to
appoint
someone
with
relevant
agency
experience
or
an
official
who
has
been
Senate-confirmed
to
a
different
position
to
temporarily
lead
an
agency.
But
since
the
president
never
officially
tapped
Lake,
that’s
not
going
to
help
her
either.
As
a
third
fallback
position,
the
DOJ
argued
that
Lake
was
acting
under
a
lawful
delegation
of
authority
from
Morales,
pursuant
to
22
USC
§
1435.
But,
as
Judge
Lamberth
pointed
out,
that
statute
only
refers
to
a
delegation
by
the
Secretary
of
State.
“Although
the
Court
assumes
that
this
citation
was
not
purposely
misleading,
Lake
does
not
acknowledge
the
gap
between
her
characterization
of
§
1435
and
its
plain
text,
let
alone
suggest
why
the
Court
should
infer
that
when
Congress
explicitly
referred
to
the
Secretary
of
State,
it
in
fact
meant
to
include
the
CEO
of
USAGM,”
he
sniffed.
Benchslap
Judge
Lamberth’s
apparent
fury
may
have
something
to
do
with
the
rushed
posture
of
his
ruling.
On
February
26,
2026,
the
plaintiffs
informed
the
court
that
Lake
had
just
fired
off
a
tweet
inviting
USAGM
employees
to
check
their
emails
to
find
out
about
“our
continued
efforts
to
modernize
and
right
size
@USAGM.”
The
email
offered
USAGM
employees
a
chance
to
voluntarily
quit
by
March
9
and
earn
six
months’
severance.
If
they
stuck
around,
they’d
be
fired
as
soon
as
the
agency
could
get
out
from
under
Judge
Lamberth’s
order.
The
plaintiffs
raced
back
to
Judge
Lamberth
and
requested
that
the
court
rule
on
their
motion
for
summary
judgment
by
March
9
because
“a
decision
from
this
Court
could
significantly
influence
employee
decisionmaking
by
providing
valuable
information
before
the
deadline
to
respond.”
And
plaintiffs
got
their
wish.
Judge
Lamberth
granted
their
motion
for
summary
judgment
on
this
issue,
holding
that
“any
actions
taken
by
Lake
during
her
asserted
tenure
as
acting
CEO
between
“July
31
and
November
19,
2025,
including
but
not
limited
to
the
August
29
reduction-in-force
effort,
or
actions
taken
pursuant
to
the
March
or
July
delegations
of
CEO
authority,
are
void.”
Lake
responded
with
her
usual
grace
and
aplomb,
calling
one
of
the
longest-tenured
conservatives
in
Washington
an
“activist
judge.”
So
weird
that
Trump
never
got
around
to
nominating
such
a
paragon
of
professionalism
and
stability
for
Senate
confirmation!
Ah,
well,
she
can
always
go
back
to
Arizona
and
run
for
office
another
dozen
times.
Liz
Dye produces
the
Law
and
Chaos Substack and podcast. You
can
subscribe
by
clicking
the
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