ENOUGH ALREADY

Reagan-Era Judge Tears Into Trump’s Propaganda Goon in Humiliating Ruling

The court had already determined that Kari Lake had served illegally as head of a federal agency.

A veteran conservative judge shredded Donald Trump’s handpicked propaganda goon for her illegal tenure at a public service broadcasting agency and ordered everyone she fired to be given their jobs back.

Royce Lamberth, a D.C. district judge appointed under President Ronald Reagan, issued a withering ruling Monday tearing into the administration’s “flagrant and nearly year-long refusal” to abide by the law at the U.S. Agency for Global Media, singling out its former acting chief Kari Lake for particular criticism.

NULL AND VOID

Trump Propaganda Goon Hit With Humiliating Verdict by Judge

Daysia Tolentino

“The defendants’ persistent omission and withholding of key information in this case has been a Hallmark production in bad faith,” the judge wrote. He further ruled that more than 1,000 employees at Voice of America—which the agency oversees, and who have now spent an entire year on paid administrative leave—be allowed to return to work.

Lake, 56, who has twice run and twice failed to secure office on a Republican ticket in her home state of Arizona, is a MAGA stalwart and veteran conspiracy theorist who has backed Trump’s claims of election rigging in 2020.

VOA employees sued Lake over her efforts to gut USAGM—which Lake has described as the “most corrupt agency in Washington”—by reducing its staff from more than a thousand down to just 68 and scaling back its infrastructure in an effort to shrink the outlet to the “statutory minimum” under its congressional mandate.

Lamberth, 82, ruled earlier this month that because the Senate had not confirmed Lake—whom he repeatedly threatened with contempt proceedings—her tenure was illegal and the changes she oversaw were void.

Lake said she would appeal the judge’s rulings but has not yet filed a motion to do so. The VOA employees have trumpeted Lamberth’s latest decision and said they are looking forward to getting back to work.

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“We are eager to begin repairing the damage Kari Lake has inflicted on our agency and our colleagues, to return to our congressional mandate, and to rebuild the trust of the global audience we have been unable to serve for the past year,” they wrote in a statement.

The Daily Beast contacted the White House, Lake, and USAGM for comment on this story.

“President Trump was elected to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse across the administration, including at the Voice of America—and efforts to improve efficiency at USAGM have been a tremendous success," White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said. “This will not be the final say on the matter.”

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