Judge pauses Trump administration's efforts to dismantle VOA

A federal judge on Friday granted a temporary restraining order that blocks the Trump administration from dismantling the government-run broadcast service Voice Of America (VOA).

The order comes after a group of VOA employees, in conjunction with other groups like Reporters Without Borders and the American Foreign Service Association, sued the Trump administration after President Donald Trump signed an executive order to eliminate the U.S. Agency for Global Media that oversees VOA.

The administration also placed almost the entire staff of VOA on leave earlier this month, which halted most of its operations. It affected more than 1,200 people, according to Deadline.

U.S. District Court Judge J. Paul Oetke in his ruling blocked the Trump administration from taking any future action to dismantle the news service.

“The dismantling of USAGM would clearly cause employees, contractors, and grantees irreparable harm. Plaintiffs have offered sufficient evidence that Defendants are doing just that," the judge wrote.

"By terminating and threatening to terminate the majority of USAGM staff, cancelling grants to its grantee networks abroad, and shutting down the transmitters that serve as the conduits for any radio programming to listeners abroad, Defendants have failed to carry out the clear, specific statutory mandates of the agency’s governing statute," he continued. "None of the statutory requirements enumerated above can be effectuated if the agency has been shuttered."

The order comes as the Trump administration draws pushback from other news outlets over its strained relationship with the Associated Press. The White House pulled the outlet's access to the Oval Office and Air Force One last month, because of AP's refusal to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as "Gulf of America."

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.