Statement by plaintiffs in Widakuswara v. Lake

Plaintiffs condemn Lake’s mass firings days after court rules she is verging on contempt

By Patsy Widakuswara, Jessica Jerreat and Kate Neeper

August 30, 2025

On the evening of Aug. 29, Kari Lake announced that USAGM has initiated a “large number” of reduction in force notices, giving our colleagues 30 days until our pay and benefits end. This, despite Judge Royce Lamberth of the Washington, DC District Court ruling just days earlier that Lake was “verging on contempt” for ignoring his orders to inform the court of USAGM’s plans regarding VOA and ordering her deposed in the coming weeks. He also ruled that Lake’s attempted termination of our director Mike Abramowitz was illegal.

We find Lake’s continued attacks on our agency abhorrent. We are looking forward to her deposition to hear whether her plan to dismantle VOA was done with the rigorous review process that Congress requires. So far we have not seen any evidence of that, and as such we will continue to fight for what we believe to be our rights under the law.