Just days after an activist federal judge ruled that actions taken by White House advisor to the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), Kari Lake, were invalid, the Trump Administration has appointed a new CEO to oversee the agency, where she will continue to serve as Deputy CEO.
The White House announced on Thursday that Sarah B. Rogers, the Trump Administration’s Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy, will step into the role of USAGM CEO. Trump also tapped Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources Mike Rigas to serve as Acting CEO of the Agency until Rogers’s nomination is confirmed by the Senate.
Lake previously told The Gateway Pundit that her “ultimate goal” with the US Agency for Global Media is to “reduce the agency down to zero, and move the assets over to the State Department,” allowing the Department of State to take over broadcasting the United States’s message and foreign policy to the world. It appears this is moving forward with Rogers, the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy, and Deputy Secretary Rigas taking over the agency.
As The Gateway Pundit reported, Lake’s appointment as Senior Advisor to the Acting CEO of the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) was ruled “unconstitutional” by a judge last week.
In an order dated March 7, 2025, Judge Royce C. Lamberth of the US District Court for the District of Columbia wrote that all of Lake’s actions “shall have no force or effect,” including reduction-in-force notices issued on August 29, 2025.
Lake responded to the ruling last week, signaling plans to challenge the ruling. “The American people gave President Trump a mandate to cut bloated bureaucracy, eliminate waste, and restore accountability to government,” Lake said.
An activist judge is trying to stand in the way of those efforts at USAGM. Judge Lamberth has a pattern of activist rulings — and this case is no different. We strongly disagree with this decision and will appeal.”
The lawsuit was filed by six left-wing USAGM and Voice of America employees who had been placed on paid administrative leave as part of Lake’s efforts to reduce the agency’s size.
One of the reporters, Patsy Widakuswara, was recently caught on a leaked audio tape, siding with Nicolas Maduro and trashing the Trump Administration for “kidnapping” the leader of Venezuela.
WATCH:
Widakuswara: In the case of Venezuela, right, VOA used to broadcast over— to over 100 million people in Latin America, including tens of millions in Venezuela. Now, when the US kidnaps the leader of your country, you would want VOA to be broadcasting accurate information, not just information from the administration that’s doing the kidnapping, right? So, that’s like one example of the loss of VOA’s independent reporting at a time when there’s huge crisis, at a time when there’s, like, major developments in foreign policy and bilateral ties.
Another leftist hack reporter, Jessica Jerreat, was also caught on an audio tape, admitting to blurring the lines between journalism and activism, sympathizing with those who have “immigration concerns” at the moment and signaling plans to undermine the US government’s deportation efforts.
WATCH:
Jerreat: Am I a journalist or am I an activist? Right now, it’s so complex. There’s so many layers of people who for reasons we discussed earlier, I’m not really sure you can understand Alan, who were visa dependent on VOA, or who have immigration concerns at the moment, and so it will be risky for them to step up. And I think it’s been hard to switch that mindset of, am I a journalist or am I an activist right now? But I don’t, I don’t consider it activism.
Prior to this ruling, Lake sat for an exclusive interview with The Gateway Pundit, where she discussed her overhaul of the agency, including her success to date in ending the globalist propaganda and shrinking the agency down to the statutory minimum.
This is a developing story.
