Donald Trump advisor Kari Lake trolled her own employees with a cryptic Friday online post telling them to check their in-boxes.
On a week where RFK, Jr. said the Health and Human Services Department would lay off 10,000 workers, Lake’s public message to remaining U.S. Agency for Global Media employees raised fears of even more firings, although divisions are already down to skeleton crews.
The administration is taking steps to dismantle the agency, which includes Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia, and other entities.
Lake’s message came hours after U.S. District Judge Paul Oetken appeared inclined to issue a temporary restraining order to halt the firings, according to attorneys arguing the case.
A group of VOA employees who were fired or put on leave filed suit in Manhattan, prompting Friday’s hearing. A separate suit, by VOA’s CEO Michael Abramowitz, was filed in federal court Washington, D.C.
‘URGENT: Employees of USAGM please check your email for an urgent message from HR. Have a great weekend,’ Lake wrote on Elon Musk’s X platform.
The email, obtained by DailyMail.com, turned out to be an updated version of Musk’s ‘fork in the road’ email that offered ‘deferred resignation’ to 2 million federal employees.
The email referenced ‘significant restructuring to enhance efficiency, accountability, and performance,’ and gave employees from March 28 through April 9 to decide whether to take a deal that gives them full pay and benefits through September 30th. It states that they will be ‘exempt from work requirements’ until then unless they choose to depart earlier.
Many of Lake’s staff have already put on leave and blocked from government email, so it was unclear Friday how many people would get it. Some agency employees who had been blocked official accounts posted about it coming back on Friday.
The administration is using the offers of months of pay to those who leave voluntarily, while the threat of widespread ‘Reductions in Force’ loom in the coming weeks.
The plaintiffs claimed a win after a Manhattan court hearing, even though the pause if formalized would only be temporary.
‘I am feeling optimistic. The judge said he’s likely to enter a [temporary restraining order],’ said attorney David Seide of the Government Accountability Project. ‘Our view is that they’ve acted illegally and unconstitutionally. We’re asking the court to intervene to enforce the law,’ he told DailyMail.com.
However the judge had yet to issue the formal order Friday afternoon.
‘I don’t know what Kari Lake means with her tweet. I’m not in her head,’ lead plaintiff Patsy Widakuswara told DailyMail.com. ‘In this case we’re optimistic about the [temporary restraining order] hearing, but we’ll have to see what the final ruling from the judge.’
Widakuswara grew up in Indonesia under the authoritarian regime of Suharto regime and now finds herself ‘taking the U.S. government to court to defend’ press freedoms, she said. Some of her co-defendants say they risk being returned to hostile regimes now that are losing their jobs, with the clock ticking on their visas once they are formally terminated.
Initially Trump’s pick to run VOA, Lake is now an advisor to the umbrella global media organization, whose nominee has yet to be confirmed by the Senate.
She is a Trump loyalist who lost her 2024 Senate race to Democrat Ruben Gallego. A post on the Agency for Global Media’s home page picturing Lake says ‘this agency is not salvageable.’
DailyMail.com has reached out to the agency for comment on Lake’s post and the lawsuits.
Abramowitz wrote USAID employees and posted his letter on LinkedIn.
‘Closing down Voice of America would be an incalculable self-inflicted wound for America and deprive the U.S. of a priceless asset,’ he said.
The suit by the staff members in New York, states that ‘prior to March 15, 202, more than 1,200 journalists, editors, engineers and other personnel worked every day worldwide to produce and disseminate news, information, opinion and more to a global audience.’
‘Today, because of Defendants’ actions, there are virtually no workers performing their important public services, and USAGM produces no news, no opinion, no content at all.’ It cited Congress’ ‘statutory mandate that VOA continuously broadcast to the world.’