Court blocks Trump's attempt to close Radio Free Europe

A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order Tuesday protecting Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty from being shut down by President Trump, saying the government was too hasty in its attempt to shutter the outlet.

The U.S. Agency for Global Media, carrying out a presidential executive order, halted payments to RFE/RL and ordered it to close its operations that relied on federal money. USAGM said the outlet “no longer effectuates agency priorities.”

But U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth said that was too flimsy a reason.

“The leadership of USAGM cannot, with one sentence of reasoning offering virtually no explanation, force RFE/RL to shut down — even if the president has told them to do so,” he said.

He said Congress has authorized spending money to promote “open communication of information and ideas among the peoples of the world,” and RFE/RL is part of that.

Given Congress’s interests, he said, the administration can’t easily erase the money.

RFE/RL was founded as a way to broadcast counter-propaganda programming into Czechoslovakia in 1950, and it grew to encompass much of the former Soviet Union’s sphere of influence, as well places such as Afghanistan.

USAGM oversees RFE/RL, as well as Voice of America and several other broadcast networks.

While RFE/RL is funded by Congress, its journalists aren’t federal employees and it has editorial independence from the government.

In addition to the shutdown order, RFE/RL had been paused about $7.5 million in federal money. The network had challenged that pause.

The administration has said it will release that money, but Judge Lamberth said that’s not enough. He said the shutdown order must also be blocked, otherwise RFE/RL might not be able to spend the money.