Just hours after Congress passed President Donald Trump’s clawback of $1.1 billion in funding from public broadcasters, a federal judge delivered a separate blow to the administration, ruling the White House unlawfully withheld funds from Radio Free Europe.
US District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth issued the decision Friday, sharply criticizing the administration’s actions as “unprecedented” and its legal arguments as “nonsensical.” The ruling comes after months of delayed funding that left Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a US-funded but editorially independent nonprofit newsroom, without an operating contract following the expiration of its previous agreement in March.
Although Congress allocated funding for RFE/RL through September 30 in a budget bill signed by President Trump, the US Agency for Global Media refused to finalize a renewed funding contract. Judge Lamberth found that this refusal lacked any legal justification and violated the administration’s obligations under the International Broadcasting Act of 1987.
The court also scrutinized a revised agreement proposed by the Trump administration, which included provisions that would have allowed federal officials to shut down parts of RFE/RL’s operation on 24 hours’ notice and determine its board membership—authority that Congress had stripped in 2022. Lamberth deemed those terms “unreasonable” and found the agency’s lack of communication during negotiations particularly troubling, citing “stonewalling” and “continued silence” from government officials.
The case comes amid a broader effort by the White House to curtail funding for federally supported news organizations, including Voice of America and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
