Donald Trump has nominated a senior State Department official and free speech activist to oversee government broadcasters after the ousting of his previous appointee, Kari Lake.
Sarah B. Rogers, who has been serving as Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy since October, was nominated as CEO for the U.S. Agency for Global Media in a court filing on Thursday, according to the Washington Post.
The media agency oversees Voice of America and other government broadcasters, as well as funding international outlets including Radio Free Asia.
Two-time failed gubernatorial candidate Lake was removed from the role after U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, a Reagan administration nominee, ruled on Saturday that she had been running the agency in violation of the law, labelling her a “de facto” CEO.
During her tenure, Lake had attempted to fire over 500 Voice of America staffers at Trump’s request, a decision Lamberth nixed.
The judge said efforts to designate authority to Lake “were an unlawful effort to transform” her into the CEO of the agency “in all but name.” Former news anchor Lake, 56, bragged she remained Deputy CEO for the U.S. Agency for Global Media in a fiery X post on Thursday.
“President Trump tasked me with right-sizing USAGM, a taxpayer-funded global media agency,” Lake wrote. “We’ve been so effective over the last year that the Deep State has done everything they can to stop us, including launching malicious lawsuits at me and the agency.”
Calling Lamberth a “rotund DC District Court judge” who made “absurd orders and rulings,” she claimed she kept her position and was “even more determined to finish the job.”
Lake said State Department official Michael Rigas will serve as acting CEO while Rogers’ nomination is pending.
In a statement to the Daily Beast, the Department of State said if Rogers’ nomination is confirmed, she will remain in her current role. Rogers has “long been closely aligned with the Department of State, and the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy has always held consultative authorities with the agency,” the department said.
They said they were “grateful to Deputy CEO Kari Lake for her service and leadership at USAGM and for her continued work to modernize, reform, and streamline the Agency to ensure it is more accountable to the American people.”
Rogers confirmed she was ready to hold the two roles concurrently in an X post on Thursday.
“Truth-telling and censorship circumvention, including in closed societies, are critical causes for me,” Rogers said. “They are critical functions for State. They are critical reasons why America continues to fund the media entities housed within USAGM, even in an age of flourishing private-sector media.”
As well as thanking her “current boss”, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Rogers said she planned to “work hard to gain the confidence of the Senate in this dual role.”
Rogers’ Department of State biography claimed she was a “free speech activist” before joining the Trump administration.
As a partner at Brewer Attorneys & Counselors, she represented clients including the National Rifle Association and major tobacco manufacturers. Rogers is credited with having “litigated a winning Supreme Court appeal under the First Amendment challenging the ‘debanking’ of disfavored speakers by hostile regulators.”
That refers to a 2024 case where the National Rifle Association claimed a New York State official had violated the First Amendment by attempting to dissuade companies from doing business with the NRA following a deadly school shooting.
She also defended right-wing activist and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk against online censorship and appeared on The Charlie Kirk Show in October, the month after he was assassinated.
Rogers said her department would “be working with Turning Point USA to implement multiple international programs dealing with topics like free speech.”
Andrew Kolvet, host of the Kirk show, said that Rogers’ role as Under Secretary represented “a continuation of Charlie’s legacy.”
Meanwhile, Lake’s brutal firings at Voice of America have now impacted Trump’s war on Iran.
Lake, who unsuccessfully campaigned for Arizona governor in 2022 and Arizona senator in 2024, has also stymied Trump’s attempt to get his message to Iranians to overthrow their government to Iranians.
Sources at Voice of America told CNN this week that Lake’s cutting of almost all the broadcaster’s staff last year led to a loss of trust with the audience.
“We had a really good tool in the information war, and now it’s gone,” one network employee said. “You can’t just flip it on the next day.”
