Kari Lake, the two-time failed candidate Donald Trump tapped to lead the Voice of America news organization, tried to withdraw her cancellation of grants for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty on Wednesday, amid the organization’s legal challenge of the decision.
In a legal filing first reported by Politico reporter Kyle Cheney, Lake formally declared her intent to reverse the grant terminations for the international news organizations and asked the judge overseeing the challenge to dismiss the ongoing case against the Trump administration in light of her decision.
Per the filing:
Plaintiff has secured the primary relief — withdrawing the termination of its grant agreement — that it requested in the complaint. Now that plaintiff has received that relief, defendants position is that this matter is now moot. At a minimum, in light of the reinstatement of plaintiff, grant there is certainly no ongoing “certain and great“ Irreparable harm that could justify injunctive relief.
The filing also contained a letter Lake appears to have sent to Radio Free Europe’s president and the rest of the organization which says that the U.S. Office of Global Media reserves the right to “terminate the grant at a later date” if it determines that is “appropriate under the applicable law.”
Wednesday’s filing gives Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty staffers a little room to breathe, although the organization is not in the clear yet.
It’s yet another legal defeat for Lake, who lost all of her legal bids seeking to overturn her loss in Arizona’s gubernatorial election in 2022 and settled a defamation lawsuit by a former elections official in Maricopa County.
The rescission of the grant funds deals a bit of a blow to Russian president Vladimir Putin, who has labeled Radio Free Europe — which provides news coverage to many Ukrainians — an “undesirable organization.”