The Trump administration has failed to disburse Congress financing for Radio Europe/Free Freedom Radio, and the news network that was originally established to confront Soviet propaganda during the Cold War, despite the order of the judge to maintain its operation, according to the court files and officials of the news organization.
The news group, known as RFE/RL, has not received approximately $ 12 million to finance it in April from the US Agency for Global Information, and is supervised by the federal entity. The unusual delay in spending on the news organization, which relies almost exclusively on the financing of Congress, has forced the imposition of some of its employees and cut it. Parts of its programs.
“We hope that Usagm will send April funds immediately,” Benjamin Hermann, General Adviser to the News Group said in a statement. “Journalists all over Europe and Asia, who assume a tremendous danger to work in RFE/RL, depend on timely exchange for these funds allocated to Congress.”
The American Agency for World Media also canceled the RFE/RL satellite contracts on Thursday, which may hinder the delivery of Russian language programs from the news outlet, according to RFE/RL officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss matters related to the ongoing lawsuit. About 40 partner stations in Europe, which broadcasts free Europe Radio programs in Russian, depends on satellites.
In March, a federal judge in Washington arrested President Trump temporarily to close the news organization, and decided that his administration could not close one -side news group established by Congress under law. Judge Books, Royce C. Lambres of the number of federal provinces in Washington, that “the continuation of the RFE/RL process in the public interest.”
But Marny L. Chic, the lawyer who represents the news group, said in the court file on Monday that Trump officials “refused to adhere to the payment of RFE/RL money in Congress in Congress in April 2025.”
It seems that the failure of the work contradicts a letter sent by the World Media Agency to the news organization two days after the court’s order, which canceled its previous guidance to end the grant financing.
Carrie Lake, a private adviser to Trump at the US Agency, told international media, in a statement on Thursday that the administration had not paid funding in an attempt to increase control and ensure accountability.
“RFE/RL is one of the many inclined by the US World Media Agency through Congress credits,” said Ms. Lake, a local news anchor and a former candidate for a Senate member of Arizona, who attacked journalists in her campaigns.
She said: “Like other agencies, USAGM has revealed waste, fraud and abuse among those granted,” without providing any evidence. “The agency is working to enhance the supervision hard while facing a law calling for the money of unrestricted taxpayers without accountability.”
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty was established in the 1950s as an American intelligence operation that was secretly funded by C.IA. The broadcaster sought to stir anti -communist opposition in Eastern Europe and Russia.
Since the early 1970s, it has been funded by Congress and had a liberal independence. Today, RFE/RL reports in about 30 languages, up to 47 million people every week in 23 countries, including Afghanistan, Russia and Hungary. The news organization is an independent non -profit organization that receives almost all its funding from the federal government.
“For more than seven decades, RFE/RL was a vital American national security origin, fighting censorship of news of millions of people in the most repressive societies in the world,” Stephen Kabous, head of the news organization, said in a statement on Tuesday. He pledged that the news outlet “will remain in court” until the Trump administration spent all the money approved by Congress by spending bills.
RFE/RL still provides some coverage, as it can depend on savings from previous financing rounds as a separate entity from the federal government.
This is unlike Voice of America, a federal agency who is the government employees. the Journalists In America’s voice, including Her managerHe was placed on unlimited leave by Mr. Trump’s executive order and challenges this movement in court. Last week, a federal judge temporarily suspended the efforts of the Trump administration to dismantle the voice of America, but he did not resume operations and most of its employees and contractors are still on vacation.