WASHINGTON -- A US district judge on May 30 granted Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's (RFE/RL)’s third request for a temporary restraining order (TRO) in its lawsuit against the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) and ordered the agency to immediately disburse RFE/RL's May funding.
Judge Royce Lamberth also rejected USAGM's argument that the agency is not obligated to release the funds because other donors reportedly intend to provide financial support to RFE/RL.
Lamberth said the parties were "in virtually the exact same situation that they were in one month ago" when the court granted a TRO and ordered the USAGM to disburse funding for April.
Lamberth said in his May 30 order that USAGM has again refused to enter into a one-month "extender" agreement to cover RFE/RL's May funding, and RFE/RL has not received the congressionally appropriated funds for the month.
"The court's reasoning that justified the entry of the April TRO applies with equal force now," Lamberth said.
RFE/RL President and CEO Stephen Capus said the court has again issued a ruling saying USAGM must disburse the funds.
"RFE/RL is to receive its appropriated funds for May, now a full month past due, to continue operating in alignment with America's vital national security and foreign policy objectives," Capus said in a statement.
"Our dedicated journalists are needlessly paying a steep price because of USAGM's refusal to release our funds in a timely manner."
The judge's order noted that the European Union has announced an intent to provide 5.5 million euros (approximately $6.25 million) to the European Endowment for Democracy (EED), and that some portion of those funds will ultimately be provided to RFE/RL.
USAGM argued that in light of this announcement, RFE/RL can no longer show irreparable harm to justify court intervention at this time. But RFE/RL does not expect to receive any of those funds before June 30, Lamberth said.
"Without any funding in the meantime, RFE/RL will shut down the vast majority of its operations by the end of June," the order said.
The promise of some unidentified amount of funding at some point in the future, "does nothing to alleviate the irreparable harm that RFE/RL is facing now," Lamberth said.
"The court therefore concludes that the instant TRO is warranted to prevent the imminent collapse of RFE/RL," he added.
Lamberth also said RFE/RL's motion for a preliminary injunction "remains pending" and explained that the court has withheld a decision on that motion in part to allow for the appeals in various related cases take shape and in hopes that the parties would be able to reach a master grant agreement for fiscal year 2025.
That possibility is looking increasingly unlikely, Lambert said. Thus, the court intends to rule on the preliminary injunction motion promptly "to avoid ending up in this exact same position at the end of June."
RFE/RL sued USAGM in March for the release of frozen budget funds for the second half of the current fiscal year -- April through September.
In the TRO granted in April, Lamberth ruled that Congress "ordained that the monies at issue should be allocated to RFE/RL" and noted that President Donald Trump signed the budget resolution appropriating those funds. His decision ordered payment, about $12 million, to be made to RFE/RL for April.
On May 7, however, a three-judge appeals court panel issued a 2-1 ruling staying Lamberth's order pending appeal, decreasing RFE/RL's chances of receiving the April funding anytime soon and putting its already substantially scaled-back operations deeper into jeopardy.
Hours later, though, the full 11-member appeals court responded to an emergency petition from RFE/RL and imposed a pause on the panel's ruling.
The 7-4 ruling, with the court's four Republican-appointed judges dissenting, meant USAGM had to comply with Lamberth's April 29 order to disburse funds to RFE/RL.
USAGM can appeal it to the US Supreme Court, which could consider the case or decline to do so.
RFE/RL is a private, independent international news organization whose programs on multiple platforms reach a weekly audience of nearly 50 million people in 23 countries, including Russia, Ukraine, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the nations of Central Asia and the Caucasus.
The legal fight with the USAGM began after Trump on March 14 issued an executive order calling for the reduction of USAGM and the broadcasters it oversees, including the Voice of America, to "the maximum extent consistent with applicable law."
RFE/RL has continued to broadcast and publish but has taken drastic cost-cutting measures to stretch its dwindling savings, including placing hundreds of staffers on furlough and canceling many freelance contracts.
