A federal judge ordered the Trump administration on Tuesday to disburse congressionally approved grant money it has withheld from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a federally funded news organization that provides independent reporting in countries with limited press freedom.
The judge, Royce C. Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, ordered the Trump administration to pay the news organization $12 million for its April funding. Judge Lamberth appeared to close a loophole from his previous ruling, which allowed the Trump administration to effectively hold funds for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty while facially complying with the court mandate.
“In this case,” the judge wrote in his ruling, “it was Congress who ordained that the monies at issue” should go to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in legislation signed by President Trump himself.
“In short: The current Congress and President Trump enacted a law allocating funds to the plaintiffs,” he concluded.
The judge, an appointee of President Ronald Reagan, also offered an unusual defense of the federal judiciary and its nonpartisan nature, as Mr. Trump has in recent months called for federal judges’ impeachment and his administration has teetered toward open defiance of courts in some cases.
In recent months, Judge Lamberth wrote, “people from both inside and outside government have variously accused the courts — myself included — of fomenting a constitutional crisis, usurping the Article II powers of the presidency, undercutting the popular will or dictating how executive agencies can and should be run.”
He continued: “The subtext, if not the headline, of these accusations is that federal judges are motivated by personal political agendas.”
Judge Lamberth rejected the assertion that he was dictating administration policy in an abuse of power or siding with the news organization out of admiration for its journalistic work.
“When President Reagan nominated me to this bench,” he said, “I swore that I would discharge my duties ‘without respect to persons faithfully and impartially under the Constitution.’”
He added: “I am governed by that oath every day. I am not a political actor, and I have no agenda to press. I believe that the same is true of my colleagues on the federal bench.”
The White House did not immediately issue a response to the ruling.
In March, the Trump administration terminated the grant for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty after Mr. Trump signed an executive order seeking to gut its parent organization, the U.S. Agency for Global Media. Judge Lamberth temporarily blocked the grant termination about a week later, saying Mr. Trump cannot unilaterally shut down an organization funded by Congress.
After the ruling in March, the administration reversed the termination but kept withholding the money, asserting that it was negotiating new terms of the grant agreement with the outlet, also known as RFE/RL.
In the proposed agreement, Trump officials sought powers to pause funds for the federally funded broadcaster and shut down parts of its programming, moves that Radio Free Europe argued were forbidden by Congress to ensure journalistic integrity.
The agreement would also allow the Trump administration to determine the members of the outlet’s board, an authority Congress revoked in 2020 after Mr. Trump’s appointee at the global media agency meddled with the news group’s editorial decisions.
The news organization had asked the Trump administration to disburse the money it was owed for April so it could keep its operations going as they negotiate a new contract, but the government ignored the request multiple times.
Trump officials also went eight days without responding to the news group’s email until a few hours before a hearing in front of the judge.
“Turning a blind eye to the defendants’ delay tactics,” Judge Lamberth wrote, referring to the Trump officials who were sued, “would be a naïve conclusion, allowing the agency to indefinitely evade judicial review.”
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which reports in nearly 30 languages and reaches 47 million people every week, was on the brink of collapse before the court reinstated its funding.
It had terminated most contracts with freelance journalists, missed payments on office leases and furloughed more than 120 employees. The news group, a private nonprofit that has an independent board and hiring authority, receives 99 percent of its budget from congressional funding, according to court filings. Radio Free Europe’s lawyers said the news outlet would have ceased all operation by June without more funds.
The ruling follows another issued by Judge Lamberth, who ordered the Trump administration to restore operations at Voice of America, another government-funded news outlet the administration moved to shut down by putting nearly all of its employees on paid leave. Unlike RFE/RL, Voice of America is a federal agency whose journalists are government employees.
Mr. Trump has attacked Voice of America as “the voice of radical America,” and accused the outlet, which delivers news to countries such as Russia, China and Iran, of spreading “anti-American” and partisan “propaganda.”
Judge Lamberth had also ordered the administration to halt its efforts to shut down two other federally funded newsrooms: Radio Free Asia and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks. But he stopped short of granting that relief to Radio Free Europe at the time because the government and the news organization were still negotiating.
During a hearing on Monday, Abigail Stout, the Justice Department lawyer on the case, argued that the court should not intervene in an active contract negotiation, as such actions could set a precedent that could bind the government’s hands in hammering out deals with other parties.
Judge Lamberth did not find her argument convincing.
Radio Free Europe lawyers “are not saying they are unhappy with the conditions,” the judge said, interrupting Ms. Stout. “They are saying the terms are illegal.”
When RFE/RL’s counsel, Thomas R. Brugato, approached him and said he had six points refuting Ms. Stout’s arguments, the judge again interjected.
“Only six?” Judge Lamberth asked, smiling.
