Appeals Court: VOA Director Fired Illegally

• Michael Abramowitz, the Director of Voice of America (VOA), was illegally fired from his position by former agency head Kari Lake, an appeals court panel ruled Tuesday.

As the Washington Post reports, Abramowitz was dismissed by Lake in August 2025 after refusing an ultimatum: move to a lower-level post in North Carolina or be fired. Abramowitz refused and was terminated, calling Lake’s move “illegal.”

Abramowitz already was suing the government over Lake’s effort to dismantle Voice of America, the international broadcaster first established during World War II to broadcast uncensored information internationally to people living under the rule of restrictive regimes, and asked the court to rectify his firing, as well.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, an appointee of President Ronald Reagan agreed with Abramowitz that the firing was illegal, ruling that only a Senate-confirmed body called the International Broadcasting Advisory Board, which President Trump dismantled upon taking office for his second term, had the power to fire the VOA director.

Under Trump and Lake, the organization’s ranks have been decimated — with over 1,300 employees on paid administrative leave for a year and a half — and its broadcasting capacity severely curtailed. Read the original March 2025 RAMP story HERE.

In an August 2025 ruling, Lamberth granted a motion for partial summary judgment and issued a permanent injunction blocking Abramowitz’s removal. On Tuesday, more than a year after that ruling, a three-judge panel on the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Columbia handed Abramowitz a legal victory by affirming Lamberth’s ruling.

A representative for the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees VOA, did not respond immediately to the Post‘s request for comment.