Kari Lake, a Trump appointee and failed candidate for Arizona governor and U.S. Senate, is now under criminal investigation for how she handled layoffs at Voice of America (VOA).
Lake was put in charge of VOA and its parent agency, the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), with orders from Donald Trump to slash staff and downsize the operation. But a federal judge and several lawmakers say she may have broken the law doing it.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has launched an investigation after U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth accused Lake of going too far. “[W]hen Congress appropriated $260 million to VOA for [fiscal year] 2025, it did not anticipate that such a significant sum of taxpayer funds would be used to pay employees to sit at home for months on end,” Lamberth wrote. “The legal term for that is ‘waste,’ and it is precisely what federal appropriation law aims to avoid.”
That “waste” may be a violation of the Anti-Deficiency Act, a law that forbids federal officials from using government funds in ways not approved by Congress. Breaking that law can carry criminal penalties.
Lake was already warned back in June by both Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham and Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz that her actions were illegal. The warning came after she laid off staff using money that was specifically set aside by Congress to keep them employed.
Despite the pushback, Lake defended her actions in a court filing, saying she was only following Trump’s orders. She claimed Trump had a “strong interest in … closing USAGM,” and that she was carrying out his March 14 executive order “within the bounds of current and future federal law.” She denied breaking any laws or going against what Congress intended.
Still, she admitted the agency has no current plans to shut down. “Until such time as Congress deems it appropriate to pass legislation to either close or reform USAGM, USAGM has no present plans to wind down USAGM’s operations,” she said in the filing.
Lake also revealed plans to reshape VOA’s content by pulling in far-right media. She said she would “supplement content” using One America News and is in talks with Newsmax for more programming. She also wants to move the agency out of Washington and start using artificial intelligence to make graphics.
VOA journalists Patsy Widakuswara, Jessica Jerreat, and Kate Neeper are fighting the layoffs in court. They slammed Lake’s latest filing, saying it “offers nothing new of substance” and only pushes “a plan to partner with another partisan media outlet … that is contrary to the law and VOA’s mandate to serve as a reliable and authoritative source of news.”
On June 11, Lake got another warning — this time from the House subcommittee that controls foreign operations. They told her the layoff notices she sent out were illegal under the Anti-Deficiency Act.
Sen. Schatz has asked the GAO to speed up its investigation. Charles Kieffer, a former senior staffer for Senate Democrats, didn’t hold back. He said there was “no question” that Lake’s actions broke the law.
Even so, legal experts say it’s unlikely Lake will face charges while Trump is in the White House.
