Judge orders Trump admin to restore $12 million for Radio Free Europe

US Judge Royce Lamberth granted a temporary order requiring the US Agency for Global Media to release April 2025 funds to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty amid a lawsuit to keep the station running

A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to restore $12 million that Congress appropriated for Radio Free Europe, a pro-democracy media outlet at risk of going dark for the first time in 75 years.

US District Judge Royce Lamberth granted the temporary restraining order for the US Agency for Global Media to disburse money for April 2025 for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty pending the outcome of a lawsuit seeking to keep the station on the air.

Lamberth, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, found that the administration could not unilaterally revoke funding approved by by Congress.

Attorneys for the media outlet say President Donald Trump's administration has terminated nearly all of its contracts with freelance journalists, missed payments on leases and furloughed 122 employees. They warn that more employees will be furloughed and more contracts will be cancelled on May 1 if funding isn't restored.

By the end of May, RFE/RL will be forced to cancel the contracts supporting its core live news broadcasting and reporting operations. In June 2025, RFE/RL will almost entirely cease its operations, plaintiffs' lawyers wrote.

Government attorneys argued that the judge doesn't have jurisdiction over what amounts to a contract dispute that belongs in the Court of Federal Claims.

Plaintiff seeks to place this Court as the arbiter of the grant agreement terms between the parties. But doing so would put the Court in an improper policymaking role, they wrote.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty started broadcasting during the Cold War. Its programs are aired in 27 languages in 23 countries across Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East. Its corporate headquarters are in Washington; its journalistic headquarters are based in the Czech Republic.

The Trump administration has tried to make deep cuts at other government-operated, pro-democracy media outlets, including Voice of America.

On April 22, however, Lamberth agreed to block the administration from dismantling Voice of America. The judge ruled that the administration illegally required Voice of America to cease operations for the first time since its World War II-era inception.