Voice of America wins restraining order against Trump admin shutdown

Brian Niemietz, New York Daily News on Mar 28, 2025

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NEW YORK — A Rockefeller Center law firm representing Voice of America and its affiliates is claiming victory after winning a temporary restraining order against the Trump administration, which hopes to silence the broadcasting network that’s shared U.S. messaging globally for over 80 years.

Andrew G. Celli, Jr., founding partner at Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP, called the decision “a decisive victory for press freedom and the First Amendment” in an announcement celebrating litigation put before Manhattan federal court.

“Our clients are at the forefront of delivering independent news and diverse perspectives to the world, especially in countries where press freedom and independent journalism are either suppressed or nonexistent,” Celli said on Friday. “Today, their vital role has been vindicated, and their jobs preserved — at least for now.”

VOA’s suit specifically targets MAGA advocate Kari Lake, who serves as the Trump administration’s senior advisor to the acting CEO of the federal agency that oversees government broadcasting agencies.

Under Lake’s direction, the Trump administration is accused of taking action against VOA because it perceives the organization’s “journalistic output to be inconsistent with this administration’s favored viewpoint and political agenda.”

Lake, a conspiracy theorist who worked for Fox 10 Phoenix before launching a political career — including unsuccessful gubernatorial and Senate runs in Arizona — regularly claims without evidence that elections that don’t go her way were the result of fraud.

Since being tapped by Donald Trump to manage government media for the administration, she’s used right-wing outlets, including Fox News and X, to push for the end of VOA.

“From top-to-bottom this agency is a giant rot and burden to the American taxpayer — a national security risk for this nation — and irretrievably broken,” she alleged on March 17. “While there are bright spots within the agency with personnel who are talented and dedicated public servants, this is the exception rather than the rule.”

VOA broadcasts in nearly 50 languages throughout the world. It began operating in 1942 to combat fascist propaganda during World War II.

The Trump White House has called VOA’s reporting “radical propaganda” by journalists it accuses of posting “anti-Trump” content on social media.

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