Judge Blocks Trump Administration’s Cancellation of Funding for Radio Free Europe

A judge entered a restraining order against Trump administration officials.

The headquarters of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Prague, Czech Republic, on March 18, 2025. Michal Cizek/AFP via Getty Images

A federal judge on March 25 blocked the Trump administration’s cancellation of funding for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a nonprofit news group funded by money from the U.S. government’s United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM).

The administration’s termination of grants to the group, issued after an order from President Donald Trump directing officials to eliminate non-statutory components of the agency, likely violates a federal law that lets courts hold unlawful agency actions that are arbitrary or otherwise not in accordance with law, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ruled.

He pointed to how the termination letter to Radio Free Europe only offered that the award “no longer effectuates agency priorities.”

“This conclusory statement, unsupported by any facts or reasoning, is not a ’satisfactory explanation‘ and offers no ’rational connection between the facts found and the choices made,'” the judge said, quoting from prior rulings on how agencies must undertake policy actions.

Radio Free Europe also showed that it is likely to suffer irreparable harm absent a restraining order and that an order is in the public interest, according to the ruling.

Lamberth said that Kari Lake, acting CEO of the USAGM, and the agency, must take no steps to close out Radio Free Europe’s grant.

In its motion for a restraining order, Radio Free Europe said that it is funded almost entirely through government distributions of taxpayer money, with Congress finding in one law that “it is in the interest of the United States to support broadcasting to other nations.”

That law and others requires the U.S. media agency to send money to Congress, and the court must act in light of the grant’s termination, the order stated.

Government lawyers said that the dispute is over a contract and can only be adjudicated by the Court of Federal Claims. The lawyers also said that while Congress makes funding available for grants to Radio Free Europe, there is no mandated sum within the appropriations specifically for the organization.

“Furthermore, Congressional appropriations recognize flexibility for reprogramming among different USAGM grantees, and do not categorically mandate specific payment amounts,” they wrote in a filing.

Prior to a hearing on the matter, which was held on Monday, government lawyers also notified the court that the government had moved to disburse some $7.4 million to Radio Free Europe, or the amount sought by the group in its motion for a restraining order.

That money was owed for work completed from March 1 through March 14.

Because the funds are already being disbursed, Lamberth said that part of the motion is moot.