By the close of business Wednesday, Trump administration official Kari Lake must explain to a federal judge how she intends to ensure that Voice of America fulfills its congressional mandate to serve as a consistently reliable and authoritative source of news overseas despite forcing out nearly the entire workforce.
Lake has said she's just doing her job by fulfilling President Trump's wishes.
A key question remains: What is Lake's actual job?
While she has gone by a series of shifting titles involving the designation "senior adviser," an official agency record recently called Lake the "Acting Chief Executive Officer" of Voice of America's federal parent, the U.S. Agency for Global Media.
That is a presidentially appointed position. NPR can find no public evidence that Trump has ever named Lake to it. And under U.S. law, it does not appear that she is eligible to hold the job, according to former federal officials.
A government role has to be "defined and documented"
Although the question of what job Lake holds may seem a bit in the weeds, it could have ramifications for the legality of the decisions she has made in leading the agency.
"The government does not operate on the whims of a Kari Lake or even of a Donald Trump," says Norman Eisen, who served as special counsel for ethics to then-President Barack Obama.
Eisen, an attorney who is the co-founder of Democracy Defenders Fund, is representing press advocacy groups in current lawsuits against Lake over the actions she has taken at Voice of America.
"If you have a role in government, it has to be defined and documented," Eisen says. "Who knows if that's a self-anointed title? One way or the other, this raises the most profound legal questions."
In an earlier case, a federal judge voided directives tightening asylum rules in 2020 after finding that Trump's appointment of the acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services was unlawful. The case contains echoes of Lake's circumstances.
Over the past week, NPR has repeatedly asked the White House press office, Lake and another senior agency official for documentation of her current role there. None has replied. The White House Office of Personnel Management referred a query from NPR seeking more information to the agency.
"It's important to find out — is she really the CEO? How did she arrive there?" Grant Turner, who served as chief executive of the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) during Trump's first term, told NPR. "If she doesn't have that authority — and she's claiming to have the authority — then it's really just invalid. There's so many things that may come back to haunt Kari Lake and USAGM."
"Maybe she just wants to have a cool title to wave around," Turner says, "but if she really doesn't have true legal authority to have that title, then they're really just begging for problems."
Unclear that Lake is eligible to be acting CEO
Lake is a former local Phoenix television news anchor turned two-time unsuccessful MAGA candidate for senator and governor in Arizona. She is a cable news warrior for Trump's priorities, especially in attacking the press, calling for tougher laws against illegal immigration and boosting his lies about election fraud.
After winning the presidential election last fall, Trump said he wanted to name her to be the director of Voice of America. As under federal law he doesn't have the power to do so unilaterally, Trump made her a senior adviser and gave her the responsibility of overseeing the agency. Trump also dismissed the members of a government advisory board that has been set up by Congress to oversee the international networks. He has not named replacements, who would require confirmation by the U.S. Senate.
In March, Lake named a senior agency official, Victor Morales, to be the acting chief executive; in early July, according to two people with knowledge, she was elevated to be deputy CEO but continued to run the agency. (They spoke on condition of anonymity due to fears of professional repercussions.) She then forced Morales out in late July, which is when she began to be referred to as acting CEO both inside and outside the vastly diminished agency.
The federally funded international broadcaster has — until this year — broadcast news in 49 languages, reaching lands where a free press is either under duress from authorities or not financially viable. After she severed the contracts of hundreds of Voice of America journalists and put hundreds more permanent employees on paid leave, the network is down to four language services.
Under the statute, someone serving as acting agency CEO must have been previously confirmed to another position by the U.S. Senate, have acted as principal deputy of the CEO for at least 90 days of the past year or be a senior nonpartisan agency official. As an adviser, Lake would have been a political appointee and not an executive. Former agency CEO Amanda Bennett's departure in January preceded Lake's apparent elevation to deputy CEO by at least five months.
"I don't believe she qualifies," says Richard Painter, the chief White House ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush.
Lake identified as acting CEO on TV appearance and in official document
Yet that's how the right-wing cable channel Real America's Voice identified Lake in a July 31 segment she posted Sunday on her own YouTube page.
"Joining me now is acting CEO for the U.S. Agency for Global Media. Kari Lake, it's always a pleasure when you come on," host Brian Glenn said. "You have a major role over VOA. You have the oversight. You've made some changes. Get us up to date."
A caption under Lake displayed the same title throughout the entire segment.
The next day, on Aug. 1, the agency itself called her the "Acting Chief Executive Officer of USAGM" twice in a letter to Voice of America Director Michael Abramowitz informing him that it intended to fire him. USAGM senior adviser John Zadrozny cited Lake as the "deciding officer" to whom Abramowitz could challenge the decision.
Abramowitz has instead challenged his planned firing as unlawful in court documents submitted to U.S. Judge Royce C. Lamberth. The judge is overseeing a group of related lawsuits against Lake and the government filed by Abramowitz as well as other Voice of America journalists, an agency official, unions and press advocacy groups. (Abramowitz's attorney declined to comment.)
Under federal statute, the Voice of America director "may only be appointed or removed if such action has been approved by a majority vote" of the advisory board.
In a motion in response, lawyers for the U.S. Justice Department wrote that the administration had the power to dismiss Abramowitz for previously refusing to accept a transfer to a shortwave radio facility in North Carolina from the network's headquarters in Washington, D.C.
The lawyers cited Article II of the Constitution, which gives the president control of the executive branch of the federal government.
The government could rely on the same rationale in justifying Lake as acting CEO, should the agency continue to assert that she holds that job.
Yet the CEO position also requires nomination by the president and confirmation by the U.S. Senate.
"They're making life a lot more complicated for themselves," says Painter, the former White House ethics lawyer. "This would create an additional argument for anybody she fired or any other acts she engaged in, including entering into contracts."
A revolving door of chief executives as Lake oversees agency
Then-President Joe Biden's CEO, Amanda Bennett, resigned on the day of Trump's second inauguration in January.
Trump's first announced pick to run the agency, conservative media critic L. Brent Bozell III, never took office, as the administration made clear it would try to dismantle the networks and the agency. (Bozell has instead been nominated to be Trump's ambassador to South Africa.)
Initially, the agency's chief financial officer, Roman Napoli, served as acting chief executive, followed by Morales in March.
Until late July, Lake's own title was "senior adviser" — though, as NPR has previously reported, it has variously been rendered as senior adviser for the administration, for the agency, for the agency's chief operating officer (a position the agency does not currently have) and, in a court filing in late June, "senior advisor to the acting CEO."
The government's legal filings on Wednesday in response to Judge Lamberth's demand for more information from Lake about her plans for Voice of America may shed more light on what job she has.
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